ASR Hospitals (India) Pvt. Ltd. Vs State of Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Pradesh High Court)
The first allegation of arbitrariness is the disqualification of the Petitioner. Instruction No. 4 of ‘Instructions to bidder’ in the tender document required the bidders to submit copy of the certificate of registration of GST, EPF, ESI with the appropriate authority valid as on the date of submission of tender documents. It is the admitted case of all sides that the petitioner did not submit certificate of registration under the GST Act. The defence of the petitioner is that the Central Government had issued a notification exempting various services, including the primary activity of the petitioner from payment of tax under the GST Act. The petitioner’s case is that in view of such an exemption from payment of tax, the petitioner need not register under the GST Act and as such does not have to possess a registration certificate under the GST Act to participate in the tenders called by the 2nd respondent.
A person is exempted from the requirement of registration if he is engaged in supplying only those goods and services which are exempt from registration and does not supply any other goods or services. If such a person deals in any other goods or services, he will not be eligible for such exemption.
Sri Chittem Venkata Reddy, the learned counsel appearing for the 2nd respondent submits that the successful tenderer would be required, as per Section IV of the Tender Documents, to supply medicines and other goods, which are not exempted under the GST Act, in the process of maintaining SNCUs, and for that reason the 2nd Respondent had required all bidders to submit GST registration certificates. It is clear that in such a situation, the Petitioner would have to supply drugs and goods which are not exempt from levy of GST and the petitioner would require to be registered, under the GST Act. In the absence of such a registration certificate, the action of the 2nd Respondent in rejecting the technical bid of the Petitioner cannot be termed to be arbitrary.
