A. Muhamed Mustaque JUDGMENT
A. Muhamed Mustaque, J.
1. This writ petition is filed by the association of Government Electrical Contractors registered with the Public Works Department. They approached this Court, aggrieved by the stipulation in e-tender floated by the PWD for construction of the hospital block building of the Government Medical College, Palakkad. The grievance of the petitioner is that, tender has been floated in composite manner without bifurcating civil and electrical components of the contract. The case of the petitioner is that, contractors are having separate registration for civil work as well as electrical work. The registration to undertake the work on behalf of PWD is a mandatory requirement and any proposal to award composite work is in violation of PWD Manual as well as the judgment of this Court, produced as Ext. P5 and relevant Government Order.
2. The petitioner challenges Ext. P4 Government Order as well. By Ext. P4 Government Order, Government relaxed the conditions in the PWD Manual. The reason for revision in PWD Manual can be seen from the Government Order itself. It has been found by the Government that, as per the stipulation in the tender procedure, bids are open to all contractors registered with the PWD or recognized organization under the State Government or Government of India and they do not cater for execution of works through turnkey projects. Government, therefore, acted upon the proposal of Chief Engineer to revise the PWD Manual.
3. The proposal of the Chief Engineer is referred to in Ext. P4 Government Order, which is as follows:
"However, for projects to be taken up as turnkey projects, established and experienced firms which satisfy the conditions specified in the bidding document can participate in the bidding process even though they do not have a valid registration in the State Public Works Department."
4. The petitioner's arguments are two fold: firstly, the petitioner points out the importance of registration under the PWD. According to the petitioner, this creates an accountability to the contractor with PWD or with such agencies, with which contractors are having registration. This is, according to the petitioner, to ensure the quality of work to be undertaken by the contractors. Therefore, doing away with the registration, the quality of the work will have to be sacrificed. Secondly, this would give a monopoly to civil contractors and will not give a chance to the electrical contractors to participate in the tender. The learned Senior Counsel submits that civil contractors will be able to do both civil works as well as electrical works. The petitioner relied on the judgment of this court in W.P.(C) No. 30556/2009, produced as Ext. P5.
5. This Court, as per the judgment in the above case, directed the Government to consider the grievances highlighted by the electrical contractors. Petitioner points out that, thereafter, Government, by Ext. P6 order, separated schedule of works for awarding both civil as well as electrical works and ordered that composite tenders would have a separate schedule as above and if contractors are having civil and electrical licence, they can bid for both civil and electrical works in the composite tender. However, it was made clear that, contractors, having licence only for one of the components, can participate in tender, in which they have licence. Thus, by the above Government Order, award is based on separate bid for civil and electrical work.
6. It is to be noted that, Ext. P5 judgment or Ext. P6 Government Order has no relevance in the matter. The above judgment and Government Order would only apply in respect of the work for which registration is prerequisite. In this case, the Government has treated works costing more than Rupees Fifty crores as turnkey project. In paragraphs 4 and 5 of the counter, it is stated as follows:
"It is not correct to say that, under a turnkey project, no registration is required. Under Clause 3.2.5 of Notice Inviting Tender (NIT), it is mandatory that the intending tenderer has to submit the registration details as a construction contractor ........