The Delhi High Court has upheld the disqualification as the CA Certificate did not match details on the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) portal as per the Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN). The bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora has observed that the discrepancy has arisen on account of the non-mention of the certified information by the petitioner’s Chartered Accountant in the corresponding UDIN certificate in the field under the heading ‘Figures/Particulars’. With respect to the UDIN certificate filled in by the Chartered Accountant on the ICAI website, the Chartered Accountant has left the field blank, and consequently, there is no certified information available in the UDIN certificate.
The petitioner has sought directions from Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) to withdraw the disqualification email by which the petitioner’s bid has been rejected. The petitioner contended that it has submitted all the certificates by CA as per the terms of the NIT, which is as per the prescribed format, and, therefore, the petitioner is technically eligible to participate in the tender. It has been certified by the Chartered Accountant on its letterhead with the UDIN as per the terms of the tender.
The IRCTC rejected the CA certificates and the bid on the ground that the information certified by the CA is not reflected in the UDIN certificates downloaded from the ICAI website. The department contended that the concept of UDIN has been introduced by ICAI to eradicate the practice of bogus certificates and has been made mandatory for all certificates issued by a Chartered Accountant. The department argued that the information certified by the Chartered Accountant did not find any mention in the UDIN certificate downloaded from the ICAI website. As a matter of fact, with respect to the other bidders who have been technically qualified, the information certified by their chartered accountants is duly reflected in their respective UDIN certificates.
The court noted that the purpose of UDIN is to enable third parties, such as the respondent and tendering authority, to verify the authenticity of the certificate(s) issued by the Chartered Accountant online through the UDIN portal. The court, while upholding the action of the IRCTC, held that the stand of the respondent in disqualifying the technical bid of the petitioner on the ground that the information certified by the Chartered Accountant cannot be verified on the UDIN portal is not arbitrary or irrational. The respondent has, as per its stand, uniformly disqualified all bidders whose certified information was not mentioned by the Chartered Accountants in the UDIN certificate.
Counsel For Petitioner: Raj Shekhar Rao
Counsel For Respondent: Saurav Agarwal
Case Title: M/S Sunshine Caterers Private Limited Versus Union Of India
Case No.: W.P.(C) 4628/2024 & CM APPL. 18999-19000/2024
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