If the e-portal for bidding is a common platform and the respondent exhibits no reason to deliberately exclude the petitioner then there is no malafide alleged against them : Delhi High Court
Technology has caused a huge change in the ways things are processed. Though it is majorly positive, glitches and other unfortunate events do occur, causing irreparable harm. This was held in the judgment passed by a two- judge bench HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE VIPIN SANGHI HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE JASMEET SINGH, in the matter of BVG INDIA LTD V. NORTH DELHI MUNICIPAL CORPORATION & ANR. [W.P.(C.) No. 9148/2021 and C.M. No. 28488/2021], dealt with an issue where the petitioner filed a petition seeking a direction to the respondent North Delhi Municipal Corporation to allow the petitioner to submit its financial bid, and after the same is submitted, for its consideration along with other financial bids received by the respondent in respect of the tender.
The petitioner is an established player in the field of providing FMS and has been offering its services to various Government bodies. The respondent Nr.DMC floated the aforesaid tender. The bids were required to be submitted electronically on the web portal.
Since the petitioner was interested in participating in the tender in question, the petitioner successfully uploaded its Technical Bid on 16.08.2021. However, when the petitioner attempted to upload its Financial Bid, the petitioner experienced a technical glitch on the portal.
The petitioner then contacted the respondents and the respondent asked the petitioner to continue to upload its Financial Bid and not to worry about the apparent error. However, subsequent to that, the petitioner was not able to upload its Financial Bid, as each time the petitioner tried to submit its Financial Bid, a pop-up message emerged which stated “Bid uploaded by Department is altered”. The petitioner claims that, once again, the IT support officers of the respondents were contacted, but despite repeated attempts even at their end, the petitioner’s Financial Bid could not be uploaded by the closing time
Counsel for the petitioner stated that the petitioner cannot be made to suffer for no fault of its. It was a glitch in the respondent’s web portal, which led to the petitioner’s inability in uploading the Financial Bid
After hearing both the parties The Hon’ble Delhi High Court dismissed the petition and held though this Court does not have the expertise to determine as to whether there was a glitch or not, the contention of the respondents and the surrounding circumstance will have to be accepted based on preponderance of probability.
Judgement reviewed by – Vaishnavi Raman