Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
Hemant Gupta and Aniruddha Bose

JUDGMENT

Hemant Gupta, J.

Leave granted.

1. The present appeals are directed against the interim order passed by the High Court of Judicature for Rajasthan on 29^th May, 2020 and 10^th June, 2020 whereby in an intra-court appeal, the High Court passed an order of status quo with a further direction that other formalities may proceed but the contract shall not be signed with the leave of the Court.

2. The Rajasthan State Warehousing Corporation Ltd. is in appeal aggrieved against the said interim order. It is argued by the learned Counsel for the Appellant that the tender was given for warehouses at 71 locations on 12^th March, 2020 for operation and management of the warehouses under Public Private Participation (PPP) Model. Certain queries were raised by the writ Petitioners before the High Court (Respondents herein) in respect of Clause 5(5)(i) of the notice inviting bid. Such Clause reads as under:

The bidder (either directly or through its 100% owned subsidiary) should have experience in preservation, maintenance and storage of not less than 4.00 Lac MT on an average basis for last 3 Financial years (i.e.: 2016-17 to 2018-19) of MSP procured food grain, pulses, oil seeds etc. of Central/state government agencies at par with CWC/SWC/FCI/NAFED etc. in any state/union territory across India.

3. There was pre-bid conference and thereafter certain clarifications/amendments were issued. The Clause 5(5)(i) was retained as such. The writ petitions were filed challenging the tender conditions and the clarification issued. Such writ petitions were dismissed by the learned Single Bench of the High Court on 19^th May, 2020. It was on 20^th May, 2020, technical bids were opened and the Appellants in Civil Appeals arising out of Special Leave Petitions (Civil) Nos. 7834-7839 of 2020 and Special Leave Petitions (Civil) Nos. 7935-7936 of 2020 were found to be successful bidders. A letter of intent was issued on 21^st May, 2020. In an intra-court appeal, the High Court passed the following order:

D.B. Civil Special Appeal (W) No. 362/2020, D.B. Civil Special Appeal (W) No. 364/2020 & D.B. Civil Special Appeal (W) No. 372/2020:

Copies of the appeals be served on the Counsel for the intervener through email. Reply affidavit, if any, be filed on or before 05.06.2020 and be exchanged by the parties.

List on 10.06.2020.

In the meantime, status-quo as on date shall be maintained till the next date. Other formalities may proceed, but the contract shall not be signed without leave of this Court.

4. The High Court maintained the above interim order on 10^th June, 2020. The order reads as under:

Mr. Pankaj Gupta, learned Counsel for the Appellant submits that he has complied with the order dated 29.05.2020 and filed the amended cause titles in the Registry last evening.

Registry to verify and act accordingly.

He also submits that he has served copies thereof through E-Mail sent by the AOR.

Learned Counsel submits that the pleadings in the matter are complete and seek urgent disposal of the matter.

Accordingly, the matters stand adjourned to 06.07.2020 for final disposal. ........