In Brief
Caretel Infotech Ltd, declared L-1 (lowest bidder) in an HPCL call centre tender, received a show cause notice for blacklisting in another government department's tender before submitting its bid. The blacklisting order was passed after the contract was awarded to Caretel. A competing bidder challenged the award in the High Court, which allowed the petition, holding that Caretel breached its undertaking by not disclosing the show cause notice. The Supreme Court reversed this, holding that the tender's specific disclosure format covered only actual blacklisting, not show cause notices (a prior stage). The Court also held that the High Court wrongly examined ISO certificate doubts in writ proceedings rather than leaving such factual disputes to civil suits or the tendering authority's judgment. The appeal was allowed.
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