Expectation of higher bid cannot be reason to cancel auction process: SC

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said merely because the authority conducting the auction expected a higher bid than what the highest bidder had offered cannot be a reason to discard the entire process.

- PTI

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahdevan set aside an order of Allahabad High Court upholding cancellation of bid by Golden Food Products India for an industrial plot under Madhuban Bapudham Yojana in Ghaziabad measuring an area of 3,150 square metres.

The company alleged that despite being the highest bidder in the 2023 auction held by Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA), its bid was cancelled.

The GDA claimed in the auction process it has noticed that similar properties in the same scheme had received substantially higher prices than offered by the company in its bid, the auction committee recommended cancelling the appellant's bid in order to conduct a fresh auction.

The bench while setting aside the high court orders of May 24, 2024 and July 15, 2024 and directed the company to re-deposit the earnest money preferably within four weeks.

It said within two weeks from the date of the redeposit of the earnest money, the GDA shall make an order of allotment of the subject plot in favour of the company herein and take all consequential steps for concluding the auction process in favour of the firm.