The Government of Delhi on 18th June 2020 was directed to issue the tenders for inviting bids from insurance companies and finalize the tender for the group insurance and Medi-claim insurance for 29,098 advocates. A status report was thereafter filed which stated that 3 insurance companies submitted their technical bids for Group (Medi-claim) insurance. The bids were evaluated by the Technical Evaluation Committee(TEC) and it was stated that all 3 of them were not qualified. W.r.t Group (Term) Life Insurance only LIC submitted its bid, but even their bid was rejected and the tender was scrapped. The two main reasons for scrapping the tender were non-compliance of conditions i.e submission of EMD and experience related documents.
Mr. Kailash Gahlot, Minister of Law also stated that a consultant was needed to be appointed from within the insurance sector in order to assist the Government in the entire bidding process and enable it to make a decision.
It was contended by Counsel for the petitioner Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) had a very high standard of paying a substantial amount of earnest money deposit (EMD). It was contended that all the companies were nationalized government and the court could exempt the payment of EMD. As far as LIC was concerned, it was contended that it was the most well-established life insurance company and completely scrapping their tender would be inappropriate.
Counsel for Government submitted that there would be no problems in conducting negotiations with such well-established companies. Further, the EMD was needed as a kind of guarantee to ensure that the company honors its bid right till the end.
The Court after perusing the issue finally stated, “Rejection of the bids of all the bidders, who are well-established insurance companies in India, would lead to further delay in obtaining insurance policies for lawyers, who are eligible as per the Scheme. The experience of these companies is a well-known fact. The insurance policies in the present case involve thousands of lawyers.” The Court acknowledged the reputed nature of the companies and stated that two reasons are not sufficient to hold them as unresponsive.
The Court also directed the following:-
- TEC shall also open the financial bids of the bidders
- The TEC, shall conduct negotiations with the companies without insisting upon the conditions of EMD and experience-related documents and thereafter finalize the manner in which policies are to be obtained. TEC has the liberty to either give the bid to one insurance company or divide the same as it deems feasible.
- TEC will also hold meetings with LIC and finalize the terms for the life insurance policies.
- Bar Council of Delhi to prepare a list of lawyers who would be excluded. This Court would consider the modalities for extension of the benefit to them, if possible at a later stage.
- Mr. Sanjay Kumar Aggarwal, Principal Secretary (Law & Justice), GNCTD shall join the TEC in the said meetings.
- After holding meetings with the insurance companies, the minutes of the meeting and TEC’s decision shall be put up before the concerned authorities so that the approved decision of the GNCTD can be placed on record before the next date along with the minutes of the TEC.
- Insofar as the appointment of a consultant is concerned, the GNCTD may take steps to appoint a consultant, if required, in accordance with the law.
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