Revalsys Technologies India Private Limited & Anr v. Land Ports Authority of India & Anr

SANJEEV NARULA, J OCTOBER 19, 2023

* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI + Date of Decision: 19.10.2023 % W.P.(C) 11998/2023 and CM APPL. 52083/2023 REVALSYS TECHNOLOGIES INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED & ANR. ..... Petitioners Through: Mr. Aditya Dewan, Advocate. versus LAND PORTS AUTHORITY OF INDIA & ANR. ..... Respondents Through: Mr. Vikram Jetly, CGSC with Ms.Shreya Jetly, Advocate for respondent No.1. CORAM: HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJEEV NARULA SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA, CJ. (ORAL) 1. The instant writ petition has been filed by the Petitioners seeking a direction to the Respondents to accept the bid of the Petitioners in respect of Tender Document No. GEM/2023/B/3552190 dated 09.06.2023 ("Subject Tender") issued by the Land Ports Authority of India ("LPAI" or "Respondent No. 1") 2. The facts in brief, leading up to the filing of the instant writ petition are, that on 09.06.2023, LPAI issued the Subject Tender for the work of "Selection of System Integrator for Design, Development, Implementation and Operation & Maintenance of Land Ports Management System "VINIMAY"" ("the Project") of LPAI. The terms of the Subject Tender provided that participants should submit their respective bids by 03:00 PM on 01.09.2023. The Request for Proposal ("RFP") for the Subject Tender provided that the bids should be submitted by uploading the concerned file to the Government E-Marketplace ("GEM" or "Respondent No. 2") Portal. 3. Petitioner No. 1 and Petitioner No. 2, entered into a Consortium Agreement dated 30.08.2023 for the purpose of submitting their bid in pursuance of the Tender under the name of "REVALSYS-ENVISION LPMS" ("Petitioner Consortium"), with Petitioner No. 1 as the lead member of the Petitioner Consortium. 4. It is stated that on 01.09.2023, i.e., the last day of submission of bids for the Subject Tender, the Petitioner Consortium sought to submit their bid via the GEM Portal, however they were unable to do so owing to technical glitches on the GEM website and the Petitioners were unable to upload the files, and therefore their bid could not be submitted for no fault on their part. It is stated that the GEM Portal showed an error that "PDF File format not supported" despite the fact that it met the specifications provided, with aa file size of less than 10 MB and not more than 100 pages. 5. On the same day, at 02:30PM, the Petitioners raised with GEM, a grievance ticket with the description of the issue being "Unable to Participate In Bid". It is stated that the GEM Helpdesk executive accessed the Petitioners system remotely through AnyDesk software and the Petitioners followed his instructions to compress the files, however the issue was still not resolved. 6. The Petitioners therefore were unable to submit their bid before 03:00 PM on 01.09.2023 and have approached this Court with the following prayers: "a) Issue a writ of mandamus and/or other order(s) of the similar nature directing the Respondents to suitably extend the date for submission/opening of the tender inviting bids vide its tender document no./ GEM bid number: GEM/2023/b/3552190 issued by the Land Ports Authority Of India, and/or b) Issue a writ of mandamus and/or other order(s) of the similar nature directing the Respondents to manually/physically accept the bid of the Petitioners in respect of the tender inviting bids vide its tender document no./ GEM bid number: GEM/2023/b/3552190 issued by the Land Ports Authority Of India and/or c) Issue a writ of mandamus and/or other order(s) of the similar nature directing the Respondent No. 2 to rectify the errors in the GeM portal and permit the Petitioners to submit their bid online and direct the Respondents to consider the same for the process of the tender document no./ GEM bid number: GEM/2023/b/3552190 issued by the Land Ports Authority of India; and /or d) Pass any other/ further order(s) or direction(s) as this Hon"ble Court may deem fit and proper in the interest of justice. " 7. The present case came up before this Court on 13