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Informist, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected Param Enterprises Pvt. Ltd.'s plea challenging Ircon International Ltd.'s award of tender to Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. Param Enterprises had sought disqualification of Rail Vikas and declaration of the petitioner as the L-1 bidder for Ircon International's tender.

 

The case has its genesis in Ircon International issuing a tender for the supply, installation and commissioning of centralised electronic interlocking system at 10 new stations in Chhattisgarh and other miscellaneous works at an estimated cost of INR 2.09 billion. 

 

After the bid was opened in February, petitioners noted that there were several anomalies in the performance certificate relied upon by other participants as they were failing to meet the eligibility criteria. Accordingly, the petitioner requested Ircon that the "essential qualifying criteria" be considered in true spirit and there should not be any arbitrary dilution. Meanwhile, Rail Vikas Nigam was awarded the contract. 

 

The petitioner argued that the contractor should possess the experience of having successfully completed or substantially completed similar works during the last seven years with defined parameters of the estimated value of such works. While Rail Vikas' bid and experience certificate showed that they have done such works, the same were fully sub-contracted, said the petitioner. Rail Vikas could not take the benefit of credentials which had already been transferred to sub-contractors, said the petitioner.

 

"The court does not find any infirmity with the decision-making process, considering that, for the purpose of tender evaluation, verification of the experience certificate was sought," said the court. It cannot be ignored that technical experts, who evaluate tenders of such large value, would understand the difference between completion of works through sub-contracting and execution of works, said the court. These are matters that would be par for the course for technical experts, and the court does not wish to enter into that thicket, it added.

 

On Friday, shares of Ircon International ended 1.7% lower at INR 174.34 on the National Stock Exchange, and those of Rail Vikas Nigam ended 0.8% lower at INR 345.45.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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