In Brief
Maharashtra Housing Development Authority issued an e-tender for a major redevelopment project. Shapoorji Pallonji & Company uploaded its bid but did not receive an acknowledgement, claiming it had pressed the freeze button. After correspondence with MHADA and the National Informatics Centre (NIC), the bid was treated as invalid due to the bidder's failure to properly freeze/submit it. The bidder filed a writ petition, and the High Court ordered the NIC to retrieve the bid and have MHADA consider it as valid. The Supreme Court allowed MHADA's appeal, setting aside the High Court's directions, holding that the bid documents were irretrievably lost per NIC guidelines and the bidder had no timely recourse, thereby preventing an unmerited second opportunity in a transparent e-tendering process.
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