Case Law Details
Savinder Singh Vs. Secretary, Department of Food & Civil Supplies Consumer Affairs, Government of Punjab & Another(Competition Commission of India)
The Commission observes that essentially, the Informant is aggrieved of the stipulation of requirement of work experience of transportation of food grains of SPAs for a minimum period of one year in the last three years. Also, Informant is aggrieved of the stipulation of requirement of minimum turnover as specified in the Policy.
The Commission is of the opinion that a work experience requirement of one year or minimum turnover requirement as alleged in the Information, does not in itself can be said to be anti-competitive. In this connection, it is also pertinent to point out that the potential provider of transportation service may have work experience of one year from “State Government Procurement Agencies”, which has been defined in the Policy and inter alia includes FCI also. In this regard, it is noted that the Informant itself has enclosed copy of a tender issued by FCI for procurement of such services, which clearly enables service providers with no experience or insufficient experience to participate in the bidding process. As such, the impugned clauses do not appear to foreclose Informant from acquiring the work experience required for participating in the tender floated by OP.
In relation to allegation of the stipulation of certain requirement relating to the work experience in tenders by a procurer, the Commission in various decisions has upheld the choice of the procurer as a consumer by holding that a consumer can decide what is best for it and will exercise its choice in a manner which would maximise its utility derived from the consumption of a good / service. In this regard, the Commission further observes that a procurer, as a consumer, can stipulate certain technical specifications/ conditions/ clauses in the tender document as per its requirements which by themselves cannot be deemed anti-competitive. It may be noted that the party floating the tender is a consumer and it has the right to decide on the appropriate eligibility conditions based on its requirements. The Commission also observes that in a market economy, a consumer must be allowed to exercise its choice freely while purchasing goods and services in the market. It is expected that a consumer can decide what is the best for it and will exercise its choice in a manner which would maximise its utility that is derived from the consumption of a good/ service.
Specifically, the Commission, in Suntec Energy Systems and National Dairy Development Board and Another, Case No. 69 of 2016 decided on 10.11.2016, observed as under:
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