2025:UHC:2385-DB IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL THE HON’BLE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. G. NARENDAR AND THE HON’BLE JUSTICE MR. ALOK MAHRA Writ Petition (M/B) No. 105 of 2025 1st April, 2025 M/S Digitech Call System Pvt. Ltd. --Petitioner Versus Uttarakhand Power Corporation Ltd and others --Respondents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Presence:- Mr. B. D. Pandey, Mr. Manoj Kumar, Mr. Lalit Sharma and Ms. Suraia Naaz, learned counsel for the petitioners. Mr. D.S. Patni, learned Senior Counsel, assisted by Mr. Dharmendra Barthwal, leaned counsel for the respondent nos. 1 to 4. Mr. H.M. Bhatia, learned counsel for respondent no. 5. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JUDGMENT: (per Alok Mahra J.) By means of present Writ Petition, petitioner has sought quashing of the decision taken by respondent no.1 on 11.02.2025, whereby price bid (Part-II) was opened and M/s iLcad Auxilary Services Pvt. Ltd. (respondent no.5) was declared as L-1 bidder and, subsequently, respondent no.5 was awarded contract vide letter dated 24.02.2025 which, according to the petitioner, is in teeth of tender conditions and applicable laws, inasmuch as, the same was neither communicated 1 2025:UHC:2385-DB to the petitioner nor it was uploaded on the website of respondent-Department. 2. The sole ground of challenging the award of tender given in favour of respondent no. 5 is that respondent no. 5 does not qualify as per Clause Nos. 2 & 3 of Section -III as specified in the liability criteria of the UPCL Tender and the quoted price does not comply with the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 and other Labour Laws. Sections 2 & 3 of Section III-Eligibility Criteria of Appointment of an Agency for Providing Manpower and Infrastructure for Customer Care Centre for UPCL as mentioned in the tender are extracted hereunder: TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS 2. Bidder or any of its consortium partners must be established reputed and reliable origination in field of operation a minimum 50 (fifty) seater Call Center in Government Utility Services like telecom / banking / electricity / insurance in last 3 (three) Financial years 2021- 2022, 2022-2023 and 2023- 2024. • Certificate of Incorporation. • Memorandum of Articles of Associations. • Relevant Legal documentation confirming the acquisition/merger. • Relevant purchase orders. 3. The bidder or any of its consortium partners should have operated or in operation at, atleast 4 nos. Customer Care Projects in India, from Government Utility Services like telecom /banking / electricity / insurance in last three financial years, i.e., 2021- 2022, 2022-2023 and 2023- • Work/Purchase Orders/LOI/Contact Agreement/Certification on Client Letter Head along with Performance Certificate for each project. • In case of ongoing project also the bidder is required to furnish a 2 2025:UHC:2385-DB 2024. In case of consortium, lead bidder shall have above stated experience of 2 nos. projects and other partner shall have above stated experience of 1 nos. project. The total project cost for all the four projects executed in this domain for the last three financial years should be at least Rs. 9 (nine) crores. In case of consortium, lead bidder shall have executed projects in this domain for the last three financial years of at least Rs. 6 (six) Crores and other partner shall have executed projects in this domain for the last three financial years of at least Rs. 3 (three) crores. performance certificate for satisfactory execution from the client. • Notarized undertaking is required to be submitted by the Bidder, in case the experience is regarding in-house/self owned Customer Care/BPO operations. 3. The matter was listed on 28.03.2025. On that day, Ms. Shweta Punia, Executive Engineer, C&P, UPCL, was present and she handed over the original file relating to the bid document of the 5th respondent to the Court. 4. After going through the original documents, which were submitted by respondent no. 5, it is revealed that the bidder is an established, reputed and reliable organization in field of operation of a minimum 50 seater Call Centre in Government Utility Services like telecom/ banking/electricity/insurance in last 3 years, i.e., 2021- 2022, 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 and respondent no. 5 has filed documents relating to the tenders, whereby it 3 2025:UHC:2385-DB had provided facilities of Call Centre and other staffs for Projects of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali, Department of Electronic & Information Technology, Government of Uttarakhand, Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam and with the Chief Conservator of Forest (Wild Life). All these contracts relate to the year 2021-2022, 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. Thus, the contention raised by learned counsel for the petitioner regarding ineligibility of respondent no. 5 in respect of clause 2 & 3 of Section III of the eligibility of the Tender has no force. 5. As regards the other contention that the respondent no. 5 in his bid document have quoted price which does not comply with the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. After perusing the original bid documents of respondent no.5 furnished by the Department, it is revealed that respondent no. 5 is registered with the Labour Department, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization, Employees State Insurance Corporation. Besides this, the respondent no. 5 have also filed with his bid documents the GST Registration certificate and Certificate of Incorporation issued by the Ministry of Corporations. 6. This Court is of the considered view that the petitioner have failed to make out clear cut case of arbitrariness or mala fide or bias or irrationalities against the respondent-corporation in declaring respondent no. 5 as L-1 and subsequently, awarding him the contract. 7. In such view of the matter, there is no scope 4 2025:UHC:2385-DB for interference. Accordingly, the Writ Petition fails and is dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs. (G. NARENDAR, C.J.) (ALOK MAHRA, J.) Dated: 01.04.2025 Kaushal 5