CP Cell Master General of Ordanance Service Vs KKK Mills and another (Competition Commission of India)
Competition Commission of India (CCI), by its order dated 2 January 2026 in Ref. Case No. 01 of 2021, examined allegations of bid rigging and collusive bidding in government tenders for procurement of woollen underpants. The case originated from a reference made by the CP Cell of the Directorate General of Ordnance Services under Section 19(1)(b) of the Competition Act, 2002, alleging that two bidders had entered into an agreement resulting in collusive bidding in violation of Section 3(3)(d) read with Section 3(1) of the Act. The allegations were based primarily on the fact that both bidders quoted identical prices up to two decimal points in an initial tender floated in 2019 and again in a re-tender conducted in 2020–21, which raised suspicions of cartelisation.
Upon forming a prima facie view, the Commission directed an investigation by the Director General (DG). The DG’s investigation found that the bidders quoted exactly the same prices in both tenders—₹127.90 in the 2019 tender and ₹122.75 in the re-tender—despite the tenders being conducted more than a year apart. The DG concluded that such precise price matching could not be explained as coincidence, particularly in the absence of any documented independent price-determination methodology. The investigation also revealed that bids in both tenders were submitted within minutes of each other on the same dates, indicating coordinated conduct rather than independent decision-making.
