Bombay HC upholds disqualification of Tata Motors from operating electric buses in Mumbai – India Today

The Bombay High Court has upheld the decision of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) in which it had disqualified Tata Motors Limited from a tender bid for operating electric buses in Mumbai.

The bench suggested that BEST should hold a fresh tender as the court concluded that the decision of BEST to hold the bid of another company, Evey Trans responsive, was incorrect.

BEST had issued a tender inviting bids for the operation of 1,400 single decker AC electric buses in the city of Mumbai and suburbs on gross cost contract model for 12 years. After Tata applied, BEST declared their bid as ‘technically non-responsive’.

Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Tata Motors and briefed by Karanjawala&Co and Lexicon Law Partners, argued that Tata had submitted the technical and financial bid for the tender after a pre-bid meeting in which it had requested BEST to modify certain tender specifications, which BEST did based on the suggestion.

Advocate Venkatesh Dhond with Advocates Nirav Shah, Anjan Dasgupta and Jash Shah briefed appeared for BEST and told the bench of Justices SV Gangapurwala and Madhav Jamdar that since there was no stay on the process, it had issued Letters of Acceptance to Evey Trans Pvt Ltd, the competing bidder with Tata.

After the bench passed the order, Anuja Abhyankar from Lexicon Law Partners said, “Bombay High Court has held that BEST committed an error in holding Evey Trans Limited being the successful bidder as a responsive bidder. Now we await the detailed order of the Hon’ble Court to decide the further course of action.”