In Brief
Haffkine, a Maharashtra vaccine manufacturer, floated a tender for bulk polio drugs. Two bidders participated: Nirlac (a long-standing distributor) and Bionet. Nirlac's bid was rejected as technically non-compliant; Bionet was awarded the tender. Nirlac challenged this in the High Court, which found that Bionet's bid had not been opened in the presence of Nirlac's representatives, violating Central Vigilance Commission guidelines. The Supreme Court upheld that this procedural violation vitiated the entire tender. Although Nirlac also failed to satisfy the tender condition requiring generation of 70 million doses of business, the Court directed Haffkine to award a 120-million-dose contract to Nirlac at its quoted price in the public interest, while restraining further purchases from Bionet and mandating future tenders be floated electronically with clear terms.
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