In Brief
Bharat Coking Coal Ltd. challenged a High Court judgment that had allowed a writ petition by bidders questioning the fairness of a tender/auction process. The Supreme Court held that contractual disputes in commercial tenders should be judged by principles of contract interpretation, not administrative law standards. Where a company has uniformly applied its tender terms to all bidders and the interpretation of those terms is reasonable—even if other interpretations exist—courts should defer to the company's judgment unless the interpretation is patently absurd or mala fide. The Court found no illegality and allowed the appeal, restoring the tender process.
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