Now Reading: Patna High Court rules lowest bidder has no right to contract
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Patna High Court rules lowest bidder has no right to contract
The Patna High Court has held that merely being the lowest or sole bidder does not give a vested right to a contract until the competent authority issues a Letter of Acceptance.…
The Story in Brief
The Patna High Court has held that merely being the lowest or sole bidder does not give a vested right to a contract until the competent authority issues a Letter of Acceptance. A division bench said a bidder's right is only to fair and non-arbitrary consideration of its bid. The ruling came in a case where Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (BUIDCo) cancelled a tender for a storm water drainage system in Bodh Gaya even after the petitioner remained the sole bidder twice. The court found no mala fides in the cancellation and upheld BUIDCo's decision to issue a fresh tender.
The Indian Opinion
The common narrative that the lowest bidder automatically deserves the contract is legally incorrect. The Patna High Court rightly reaffirmed that the government's duty is to ensure the tender reflects its actual requirements, not to reward a sole bidder regardless of defects. In this case, the missing operation and maintenance clause was a genuine flaw. The real test is whether cancellations are driven by arbitrariness or genuine administrative needs. How many such cancellations will courts continue to see before tender processes are made more thorough from the start?
Source: livelaw.in
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
