Case Law Analysis
|Supreme Court of India
Judicial Restraint in QCBS Tender Evaluation | Marginal Score Differences Do Not Vitalize Judicial Intervention Absent Mala Fide : SC
The Supreme Court has ruled that minor discrepancies in technical scores under a Quality-Cost Based System cannot justify setting aside a Letter of Award, reinforcing that courts must not substitute the owner’s expert evaluation unless mala fide or arbitrariness is proven. This shields public procurement processes from frivolous litigation and upholds contractual autonomy in large-scale infrastructure tenders.