Judgment of the Supreme Court of India in the matter of National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited Vs Montecarlo Limited & Others dated 28/01/2022.

The matter dealt with the Delhi High Court order, August 23, 2021 (Writ Petition (C) No. 5127 of 2021) wherein the technical bid of the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project was rejected.

NHSRCL was incorporated with the objective to finance, construct, maintain and manage the upcoming High Speed Rail Corridor in India.

The SC said that the High Court has erred in interfering with the conscious decision of the tender committee on the ground that the bid submitted was suffering from material deviation.

The Supreme Court cautioned the High Courts to be careful while entertaining the writ petitions challenging the tender process midway and/or while interfering with the tender process in the contracts, more particularly, with respect to the contracts/projects funded by the foreign countries and with respect to the Mega project like the present one.

"The foreign country is ready to invest/fund such a huge amount on non negotiated terms and the Bid Documents are prepared by the foreign financial agency/country in accordance with the latest version of the Standard Bidding Documents", the 82 page SC Judgment, January 28, 2022 read.