W.P. (C) No. 792/2025 and W.P. (C) No. 800/2025 Page 1 of 3 2 * IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI % Reserved on : 08 th July, 2025 Pronounced on : 01 st August 2025 + W.P.(C) 792/2025, CM APPL. 3905/2025 & CM APPL. 3906/2025 . + W.P.(C) 800/2025, CM APPL. 3962/2025 & CM APPL. 3963/2025 . CIS SERVICES LTD ...Petitioner Through: Mr. Ashish Mohan, Sr. Adv. with Mr. Arush Bhandari, Ms. Shimran Shah, Mr. Santosh Kushwaha, Advs. versus UNION OF INDIA & ORS. ...Respondents Through: Mr. Vikram Jetly, CGSC with Ms. Shreya Jetly, Adv, Mr. Naven, SA, Mr. Gokul, GP for R - 1 & 2. Mr. Anupam Kishore Sinha with Mr. Pradep K Tiwari, Mr. Apoorv Jha, Mr. Sahitya Srivastava, Advs for R - 3. CORAM: HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ANISH DAYAL JUDGMENT ANISH DAYAL, J. 1. These petitions have ben filed seking quashing of the operation and issuance of work orders to respondent no.3 ( SIS Limited ) in respect of the tenders bearing numbers GEM/2024/B/5209730 and GEM/2024/B/5209739 µ the tenders ¶ W.P. (C) No. 792/2025 and W.P. (C) No. 800/2025 Page 2 of 3 2 2. Respondent no.1 ( Ministry of Culture, Union of India) issued the tenders on 26 th July 2024, requisitioning service of unarmed security guards for protected monuments located in the Southern and Central regions of India ; more specifically , requirement of 925 and 381 unarmed security guards, respectively. 3. The said tender process was initiated on the Government e - Marketplace µ GeM ¶SODWIRUP . Archaeological Survey of India ( µASI ¶)/ respondent no.2 was the beneficiary of the subject tender. 4. Petitioner, a company registered under the Companies Act, 2013, claims to be engaged in the business of providing comprehensive end - to - end outsourced solutions and services for sectors where security and safety risks are considered a strategic threat. Petitioner claims to have a p an - India presence and provide s services to institutions, banks, and various government undertakings. 5. Petitioner submitted its bid on 13 th August 2024, annexing a self - declaration of its experience from the year 2022, in compl iance of requirements of the tender . 6. There were 76 bidders on the portal. On 23 rd December 2024, technical bids were opened, and 75 of the 76 bidders, including petitioner, were disqualified. The only bidder remaining was respondent no. 3, who was awarded the contract. 7. 2Q WKH *H0 SRUWDO WKH UHDVRQ GLVTXDOLILFDWLRQ ZDV ³ does not ful l fill the parameter namely required experience hence disqualified ´ W.P. (C) No. 792/2025 and W.P. (C) No. 800/2025 Page 3 of 3 2 8. P etitioner submitted a representation to respondent no. 2 on 24 th December 2024, urging them to reconsider the disqualification in light of the assertion that petitioner squarely qualified. 9. By a response dated 08 th January 2025 on the GeM portal, it was VWDWHG³ on evaluation of all documents, not found eligible. ´ 10. P etitioner, therefore, filed these Writ Petitions ; notice was issued by this Court on 22 nd January 2025 ; LW ZDV GLUHFWHG W in the meantime, we provide that finalization of the tender in question shall be subject to further orders which will be passed by the Court in this petition. ´ 11. Thereafter, pleadings were completed, and detailed arguments were heard. Submissions on behalf of petitioner 12. Mr. Ashish Mohan , Senior Counsel appearing for petitioner, drew attention of the Court to the qualification requirement in the bid document. 13. He highlighted that the services required were of security services for protected archaeological monuments , however it essentially was for the provision of unarmed security guards. 14. The specific clauses in the bid document, which stipulated the experience requirement, are extracted as under: ³2 . Years of Past Experience required: The bidder must have experience for number of years as indicated above in bid document (ending month of March prior to the bid opening) of providing similar type of services to any Central/State Govt Organization/PSU Copies of relevant contracts/ orders to be W.P. (C) No. 792/2025 and W.P. (C) No. 800/2025 Page 4 of 3 2 uploaded along with bid in support of having provided services during each of the Financial Year. 5. Past Experience of similar Services : The bidder must have successfully executed/completed similar services over the last thre years i.e,. the current financial year and the last thre financial years (ending month of March prior to the bid opening): - 1. Thre similar completed services costing not less than the amount equal to 40% (forty percent) of the estimated cost; or 2. Two similar completed services costing not less than the amount equal to 50% (fifty percent) of the estimated cost; or 3. One similar completed service costing not less than the amount equal to 80% (eighty percent) of the estimated cost. ´ 15. 6HQLRU &RXQVHO IRU SHWLWLRQHU experience of ³similar services ´ complied with both clause 2 and clause 5 in the following manner: - i. B idder was required to have an experience of thre years of SURYLGLQJ µ similar type ¶ RI VHUYLFHV WR DQ Government organization/Public Sector Undertaking, and copies of relevant contracts and orders had to be uploaded along with the bid. In respect of this, reference was made to stated experience of petitioner of providing services to State Bank of India in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh µ SBI contract ¶). The said contract ran from 2 nd November 2018 to 1 st December 2022, and, therefore, fully complied with the requirement in clause 2 . W.P. (C) No. 792/2025 and W.P. (C) No. 800/2025 Page 5 of 3