In Brief
The case concerns the rejection of technical bids in a tender for constructing a flyover in Indore. UPSBC's bid was rejected for suppressing that an FIR had been filed against it for a bridge collapse. The High Court upheld this, reasoning the FIR was no longer "pending" in the strict sense. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that paragraph 13 of the tender's Appendix IA (requiring disclosure of pending investigations) must be read with paragraph 11 (requiring disclosure of criminal indictment). Since UPSBC had been indicted by charge sheet, it was obliged to disclose this material fact. Suppression constituted fraudulent practice. Rajkamal was awarded the contract at UPSBC's financial bid amount. Rachana Construction Co.'s bid rejection was upheld as not meeting the experience requirements.
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