Public Enterprises Obligated To Ensure Fair Competition In Procurement: Delhi High Court Directs To Reopen Portal For Bidder Who Missed NTPC Coal Tender Deadline
The Bench held that a bidder cannot be prejudiced by technical failure not attributable to it, distinguishes precedents where no systemic glitch was proved.
The Delhi High Court has held that it is obligatory on the part of public enterprises to follow a fair procedure and ensure maximum participation and fair competition in public procurement, while granting relief to a bidder who was unable to submit its bid on a Government e-Marketplace (GeM) tender due to a technical glitch on the portal.
The Court distinguished the present case from three precedents relied upon by NTPC, in which courts had declined relief after finding that petitioners failed to establish any systemic malfunction attributable to the tendering portal, holding that the admitted glitch and GeM's own extension notice made the present case materially different.
A Division Bench of Justice V. Kameswar Rao and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora while hearing a batch of petitions, observed, “The petitioner, who had repeatedly tried to submit the bid documents on time cannot be prejudiced by the limitations/ errors that crept, in the portal, by no fault of the petitioner… it must be held that the petitioner was unable to submit its bid documents on time, only due to the technical glitch on the portal. This cannot be attributed to the petitioner, who was proactive in communicating to the respondents to rectify the same. As such, no prejudice should be caused to the petitioner, which is well within its right to request for an extension of time, or acceptance of its bids. In fact, it is obligatory on part of the respondents, who are public enterprises, to follow a fair procedure and ensure maximum participation and fair competition in public procurement”.
Senior Advocate Sumit Bansal appeared for the petitioner Chetan Sharma, Additional Solicitor General appeared for the respondent.
NTPC Limited had floated four simultaneous tenders on the GeM portal for procurement of 5,00,000 metric tonnes of domestic coal each for its Gadarwara, Solapur, Kudgi and Khargone Thermal Power Stations, with the bid deadline extended to July 6, 2026, 11:00 AM. The Petitioner, Alps Mining Services Private Limited, alleged that it was unable to access the GeM portal between 9:00 AM and 10:00 AM that day despite repeated attempts, and immediately reported the issue to the GeM Helpdesk and NTPC by email, enclosing screenshots and screen recordings.
NTPC rejected the request for extension at 10:49 AM, though GeM's own portal had displayed a "ticker" acknowledging technical issues since 9:00 AM and extending the deadline for affected bids to 12:00 PM on July 8, 2026. GeM's records showed the Petitioner had attempted to log in 27 times between 10:17 AM and 11:00 AM, all unsuccessful, while 29 bidders across the four tenders had managed to submit bids during intermittent windows when the server was functioning, and 544 complaints regarding portal inaccessibility were received during the relevant period.
The Petitioner filed four writ petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking either a reasonable extension of time to submit its bids or, alternatively, cancellation of the tenders and issuance of fresh bids. NTPC and GeM opposed the petitions, contending that the Petitioner had waited until the last hour to attempt submission and had failed to establish that the glitch, rather than its own conduct, was responsible for the failed submission.
The Bench noted that GeM's affidavit and the statements of its Deputy CEO conceded intermittent technical glitches on the portal since 9:00 AM, and that the ticker notice extending timelines for affected bids constituted an acknowledgment of systemic failure. It held that the fact 29 bidders managed to submit bids did not establish that the Petitioner could equally have done so, since the glitch was intermittent and the Petitioner's 27 failed login attempts, contemporaneous complaint emails, and prior submission of EMD and security deposit on July 4, 2026 demonstrated bona fide efforts. Distinguishing Jindal Steel and Power Limited, Great Eastern Energy Corporation Limited, and Agravanshi Private Limited, the Court held that in each of those cases there was a categorical finding of no systemic glitch, whereas here GeM itself had admitted the malfunction and extended timelines accordingly.
The Court allowed the writ petitions, directing GeM to reopen its portal on August 5, 2026 and provide the Petitioner a new login ID to submit its bid documents, keeping the portal open till 5:00 PM on August 6, 2026.
In the event reopening was not technically feasible, GeM was directed to inform the Petitioner by 5:00 PM on August 5, 2026, upon which the Petitioner would submit its bid physically in a sealed cover to the Deputy CEO, GeM, by 5:00 PM on August 6, 2026. NTPC was directed to thereafter proceed in accordance with the tender's RFP provisions. The petitions were disposed of with no order as to costs.
Cause Title: Alps Mining Services Private Limited v. NTPC Limited & Anr., W.P.(C) 9184/2026 & & CM APPL. 43092/2026
Appearances:
Petitioner: Sumit Bansal, Senior Advocate, Ashish Aggarwal, Tanya Aggarwal, Nalin Dhingra, Tulna Rampal, Advocates.
Respondent: Chetan Sharma, Additional Solicitor General, Adarsh Tripathi, Vikram Singh Baid, Ajitesh Garg, Amit Gupta, Naman, Muskan Goyal, Shweta Bharti, Avdhesh Bairwa, Tejaswini Chandrashekhar, Nishi Rathore, Manoj Kumar, Deputy CEO, GeM, Advocates.