Kerala High Court reserves verdict in plea challenging award of tender without signed declaration form

The Kerala High Court has reserved its judgment on a petition challenging the award of tender by Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd. (KMML) to a party who had not signed the declaration form in which the prevailing GST rate was to be mentioned accurately. .The petition was filed by the proprietor of Skillderz developers who had participated in the E-tender invited by KMML alleging that the tender was awarded to another party who had quoted inaccurate GST rates and had not signed the relevant form where it was mentioned. .The matter was heard by Justice PB Suresh Kumar. The Kerala High Court had in the past held that signing the declaration form is not an essential condition for awarding tender. However, in the present matter, it was the argument of the petitioner that the party who was awarded the tender had deliberately not signed the declaration form, where he had purportedly quoted a lower GST rate. This, it was contended, was an attempt to win the tender by cheating the State Government, KMML and other concerned authorities..The petition, filed through Advocate Renjith B Marar, stated that KMML had, in June 2021, issued tender document inviting tender for the work of highly mechanised collection, loading and transportation of mineral sand in tippers. .The petitioner claimed to have put in his bid for the tender along with all required documents mentioned by the tender inviting authority..The petitioner, along with two others, had participated in the bidding process and the petitioner had quoted an amount for Rs 3,29,00,000 with 18 percent GST. One of the other parties had quoted a higher amount but the same GST of 18%. However, the party who was awarded the tender had quoted an amount of Rs 3,29,90,000 and quoted a GST at the rate of 9%, which he is not entitled to, the plea said.This party had shown GST rates at 9% whereas it should be at 18%. The total amount without tax also was calculated at the 9 % discount offered by said party. This, it was contended, was an attempt to wilfully evade taxes and defraud the tendering authority..Pertinently, it was pointed out that the declaration form which is an integral part of the tender document was deliberately not signed by this party. As per Clause 3 of the declaration form, the bidder is required to quote the prevailing GST at the time of the bidding. By quoting a GST rate which is not prevailing while submitting the tender, the petitioner alleged that the party's intention was to cheat the company, government and the other participants to the tender. Hence, he is liable to be disqualified from the tender process, the plea stated,.It was also argued that the tender inviting authority ought to have disqualified this party in the Technical Bid opening itself and his Financial Bid ought not to have been considered. However, the tender inviting authority allegedly by oversight and with other intentions accepted this party's bid, the plea said. .Moreover, by accepting the quote of this party,the Government would actually end up paying more money, the petitioner submitted. In conclusion, it was submitted that accepting the quote of the this party would be arbitrary, discriminatory and hence violative of Articles 14 and 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India..The petitioner also sought a declaration from the Court stating that submitting of signed declaration form is an essential condition in the tender invited by KMML.