Two firms, one Partnership & the other Proprietorship participated in a oil company road transport tender in different names and offered their Tank Lorries.The Managing Partner of the Partnership firm and the Proprietor of the Proprietorship firm is the same person. I mean the signing authority of the two firms is the same person. All tank lorries owned by the proprietor found to be fake and their RCs are cancelled by the competent authority and FIR lodged against the owner proprietor. The oil company disqualified both the bids. Is it lawful or Illegal ?
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1) bids have been rightly disqualified
2) the managing partner / proprietor tank lorries have been found to be fake and FIR lodged
3) he sought to obtain contract by material suppression of facts , cheating and cannot be eligible to bid on his individual capacity or on basis of firm where he is the signing authority and partner
In the NIT document,the bidder has signed & accepted the clause: The Bidder/Contractor/Supplier will not commit any offence under the relevant anti- corruption laws of India.
When the managing partner of the Partnership firm and the Proprietor of the Proprietorship firm is one and the same person the oil company was right in disqualifying both the bids as mens rea i.e guilty mind can be imputed to a human being only who is at the helm of affairs in a legal entity.
1) since bidder has sought to obtain bids by unfair means bid has rightly been disqualified
Several pitfalls, irregularities or lapses have caused the tender to be rejected. The pre-qualification criterion is a yardstick to allow or disallow the firms to participate in the bids. While framing the pre-qualification conditions, the end purpose of doing so has been kept in view. The purpose of any selection procedure is to attract the participation of reputed and capable firms with proven track-records.
In this case the pre-qualification condition that fake people with no genuine record have been disqualified.
In my opinion there is no legal infirmity in it.
In the NIT document,the bidder has signed & accepted the clause: The Bidder/Contractor/Supplier will not commit any offence under the relevant anti- corruption laws of India.
If the bidder has signed the clause but has not lived upto it then the disqualification is justified.