The Jagan Reddy government’s move on prior Judicial Review of tenders above Rs. 100 cr is creating many doubts. Actually, any contract between a public authority and a contractor is open to Judicial Review as per existing laws. An unsuccessful bidder can challenge the award of a particular contract in a court of law. But in this case, the YCP government is making a smart move to include the Judicial Review process at the time of awarding contract itself.

Now, doubts are arising whether an unsuccessful bidder will be allowed to challenge a contract in court because Judicial Review would be already over under this policy. Questions are also being raised on the effectiveness of the policy. As per the traditional justice system, the issue of Judicial Review comes up only when one or more of unsuccessful bidders have complaints with regard to the award of a contract by a public executive. The policy proposed by the AP government goes against this spirit and it is trying to restrict the scope for further litigation by unsuccessful bidders.

The while issue arises out of the need for impartiality, transparency and genuineness in the award of contracts relating to public works or projects. At the time of finalising tenders, the public authorities concerned are supposed to follow this ideal. Making Judicial Review a part of this process is giving an impression that the public authority has no trust in its own machinery. Analysts say that this policy will give rise to more doubts and suspicions. This is something very rare in the entire administrative justice system in the world.