Gujarat HC Rejects Sand-Auction Challenge: Bidder Made 25 Bids, Then Had 8 Minutes After Winner’s Offer

The petitioner qualified to participate in an e-auction for a mining lease for ordinary sand at Ranpur. He alleged that, despite wishing to bid further, he was not given an adequate opportunity after the successful bidder submitted a higher bid. The petitioner sought, among other reliefs, to set aside the auction and direct a fresh second round.

The State produced the auction record, which showed that the petitioner’s last bid of 47.45% of the average sale price was made at 16:36:34, the successful bidder’s bid of 47.95% at 16:36:56, and the auction closed at 16:44:56.

The tender conditions provided that qualified bidders could submit multiple offers and would see the prevailing highest offer, but not the bidder’s identity. A bid had to exceed the highest offer by at least 0.05%. A bid received within the final eight minutes automatically extended the auction by eight minutes from the time of that bid; the extensions continued until no further bid was received during an eight-minute period.

The judgment did not rely on any statute or cited precedent.

The Court compared the State’s auction record with the tender conditions. The successful bidder’s offer was made 22 seconds after the petitioner’s last bid, and the auction remained open for the full eight-minute period thereafter, closing only when no higher bid was received.

The auction had run for approximately four and a half hours, during which the petitioner had placed 25 bids. In those circumstances, the Court found no evidence of a technical fault or other failure that prevented him from bidding again; it considered that he may have chosen not to bid further at the time.

It rejected the petition and took the auction document tendered by the State on record.