Minimum wage estimate altered for tenders

When the tender conditions insist on payment of minimum wages to the staff, it cannot be altered by the labour department and then the threshold amount cannot be kept a secret. It would unfairly benefit a bidder, the Supreme Court observed last week in its judgment, in Bakshi Security & Personnel Services Ltd vs Devkishan Computers Ltd. The Gujarat government had invited tenders for employment of staff at road check-posts. The two firms were the main contenders. Both of them bid for amounts which were below the minimum wage expenditure calculated by the labour department. Later, the department lowered the amount. Then Bakshi became eligible, but not Devkishan. The latter moved the high court, which asked the authorities to choose. Bakshi appealed and the Supreme Court quashed the high court order. It pointed out that when a tender condition clearly states that if the component of salary quoted is less than the minimum wage prescribed, the bid is liable to be rejected, and the high court cannot hold otherwise. The Supreme Court also blamed the state government for re-fixing the estimate of minimum wages and keeping it secret two times during the litigation, “muddying the waters”.