Author has come across cases where experience of a member of consortium/ partnership/ JV is not taken into consideration by PSUs / Government Bodies, while determining eligibility criteria for offer made in connection with any tender pursuant to request for proposal.
One line of argument for this is that a JV company or consortium are separate entities than its members and experience of JV Co. / Consortium/ Partnership is not that of its members or partners.
This line of argument is obviously incorrect in case of partnership as it is not a legal entity but a collective or compendious name for all partners; Supreme Court, in the case of Mrs. Bacha F. Guzdar v. Commissioner, has held that partnership is merely an association of persons for carrying the business of partnership and in law the firm-name is compendious method of describing its partners and that since the firm does not have its own distinct and separate personality apart from the personality of partners who compose it, no experience can be attributed to it in law and the so called personified experience of a firm, In reality, a firm’s personalized experience is nothing more than the experience of the partners who make it up.
Author is of the view that similar logic should apply to partnership between body corporates, JV companies and Consortium arrangements.
Interested readers can read full text of judgment of Supreme Court in case of Bacha F. Guzdar v. Commissioner and also of Andhrapradesh High Court in the case of S. Kireetendranath Reddy v. A.P. Transco, Vidyut Soudha
#tender #eligibilitycriteria #exeprience
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