Chennai, March 17 (IANS) The Madras High Court on Tuesday reserved orders on writ petitions challenging the eligibility criteria in a major surveillance tender floated for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

The case has drawn attention due to concerns that the conditions could restrict fair competition in a high-value public contract.

The petitions, filed by Delhi-based Innovatiview India Limited and Chennai-based I-Net Secure Labs Private Limited, alleged that the tender conditions imposed by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) were excessively stringent and effectively excluded several capable bidders from participating in the process.

The division bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan heard detailed arguments from all sides and, noting the urgency, said it would endeavour to deliver its order at the earliest, as the deadline for submission of bids and opening of technical bids was scheduled later in the day.

The tender involves the installation of around 1.5 lakh cameras across 75,000 polling stations and 3,744 cameras in counting centres for live webcasting during the election process. The project is estimated to be worth approximately Rs 120 crore and is aimed at enhancing transparency and monitoring.

Appearing for I-Net Secure Labs, senior counsel Siddharth Mridul argued that the tender conditions violated established public procurement norms. He pointed out that the requirement of a minimum annual turnover of Rs 100 crore in each of the last three financial years was disproportionate to the project value.

Citing Central Vigilance Commission guidelines, he submitted that turnover criteria should typically not exceed 30–40 per cent of the project cost. He also objected to clauses disallowing joint ventures and restricting experience evaluation to the prime bidder in consortia, stating that such provisions narrowed competition.

Drawing comparisons with other states, he noted that West Bengal had adopted more relaxed eligibility criteria for a similar project involving a larger number of cameras, thereby allowing broader participation.

Senior counsel Satish Parasaran, representing Innovatiview India Limited, challenged an additional condition requiring bidders to demonstrate prior experience of live web streaming from at least one lakh polling station cameras, along with the installation of 2,500 CCTV cameras in counting centres.

While accepting that experience in large-scale webcasting was reasonable, he argued that the additional requirement related to counting centres was arbitrary and acted as an unnecessary barrier for otherwise qualified firms.

Opposing the petitions, ECI counsel Niranjan Rajagopal defended the tender conditions, stating they were framed based on the specific needs and scale of operations in Tamil Nadu. He submitted that higher eligibility thresholds were necessary to ensure efficient execution of a project of this magnitude.

–IANS

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