SC upholds NHAI decision to annul bidding process for project
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI’s) decision to annul its tendering process for six-laning of the Kagal-Satara section of NH48 in Maharashtra The NHAI, the court said, is free to determine what it considers to be a reasonable bid and can also, at any time, decide to withdraw the tender.
The NHAI had annulled the bidding process in March this year mentioning “administrative reasons/issues” as the reason for annulment on its website.
Malaysian company IJM Corporation Berhad, which had emerged as the sole bidder for the NHAI’s tender, had challenged the decision alleging that this annulment of the tender was arbitrary and done in an illegal manner, and against all extant policy guidelines. It further said that it had satisfied all the requirements under the request for proposal (RFP) as well as the NHAI’s policy circular, and should have been awarded the works for Package-1.
