Bombay High Court rejects KSS Petron's appeal against ONGC contract

MUMBAI: Clarifying that Oil & Natural Gas Corporation has every right to reject tenders if they don’t match criteria, the Bombay High Court has dismissed a petition filed by KSS Petron seeking direction to cancel a Rs1,000-crore contract that state-run explorer has given to the local unit of French engineering company Technip.

In its petition, the engineering, procurement and construction contractor accused ONGC of favouring Technip KT India Ltd on the contract related to an onshore terminal development.

In its reply to court, ONGC said the bid given by Technip was nearly Rs43 crore lower than that of KSS Petron. "The issues raised by KSS Petron were merely technical issues which were not genuine to the tender terms and conditions," ONGC deputy general manager SK Mishra said in a affidavit filed in the court.

In its order, a division bench comprising Justices VM Kanade and AK Menon said the points raised by KSS Petron did not restrict the right of ONGC to award the contract to Technip KT India which came out as the lowest bidder.