The Supreme Court set aside the Odisha High Court's order that had upheld the State Government's decision to award a five-year sand extraction lease for the Mahanadi Sand Quarry to a lower bidder. The Court held that the exclusion of the highest bidder was based on a misinterpretation of the tender conditions and resulted in an unfair decision that caused substantial loss to the state exchequer.

“A public tender is not a private bargain. It is instrument of governance, a mechanism through which the State discharges its solemn duty as trustee of public wealth” , observed a bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Alok Aradhe while allowing the appeal filed by the highest bidder who was aggrieved by the arbitrary rejection of its bid.

The legal dispute centered on a 2022 auction for

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