A tender is treated as an offer , not an invitation to offer, because Under Section 2a of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, an offer or proposal is when one party signifies to another its willingness to do or abstain from doing something, with the object of obtaining the others assentSection 2a. In procurement law, the invitation to tender is merely a call for bidsit does not itself create binding obligations. Each bidders tender in response to that invitation is a definite offer specifying price and terms that the procurer can accept to form a contract. Thus, by law, a tender is an offer under Section 2a, whereas an invitation to tender remains an invitation to offer , lacking the certainty and intent required of an offer.