2. Shorn of minute details, the salient facts of the case, as may be
gathered from the pleadings of the parties (i.e. the writ petition filed by
the petitioner and the affidavit-in-opposition filed on behalf of the
respondent), are as follows:-
a) On July 23, 2021 a “Notice Inviting Tender cum e-Reverse Auction
Open Domestic Tender” (hereafter “NIT”) was published by the
respondent no. 1 for running contracts and empanelment as
reserve running contract holders for a period of two years from the
date of issuance of running contract for supply of bulk explosives
to all the subsidiary companies of the respondent no. 1.
b) The NIT prescribed certain terms and conditions that were
required to be fulfilled by bidders in order to be eligible for the
contract. One of the primary conditions in the NIT was that
preference would be given to eligible bidders as per the
Procurement Public (Preference to Make in India), Order 2017 of
the Government of India. In terms thereof “Local Suppliers” were to
be preferred over Non-Local suppliers. There was a further
sub-division of the category of Local Suppliers as well into Class-I
and Class-II Local Suppliers.