The High Court disposed of this writ petition regarding contractual dues and withheld payments on terms identical to a previous petition filed by the same petitioner, noting the grievances were identical.
Disposed on same terms as Writ-C No.26346 of 2022 order dated 12.9.2022.
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Court No. - 29
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 24485 of 2022
Petitioner :- M/S Anup Kumar Respondent :- Union Of India And 5 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Gautam Dubey,Gauri Dubey Counsel for Respondent :- A.S.G.I.,Pooja Agarwal,Prabhakar Tripathi
Hon'ble Manoj Misra,J. Hon'ble Vikas Budhwar,J.
Sri Himanshu Kumar holding brief of Sri Gautam Dubey learned counsel is present for the Railways and has informed the court that in another petition of the same petitioner namely Writ-C No.26346 of 2022 an identical dispute has been disposed off by this court vide order dated 12.9.2022 and therefore, this petition may also be disposed off in terms of the said order.
The order dated 12.9.2022 passed in Writ-C No.26346 of 2022 has been produced before us, which is reproduced below:-
"Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and Ms. Anita Srivastava for the respondents 1 to 6 and perused the record.
The case of the petitioner is that he has multiple contracts with the Railways and under those contracts various amounts are to be paid to the petitioner. In respect of one of the contracts, namely, Agreement No. N/Con/CA/488, dated 04.06.2012, some theft was reported. On account of the loss, consequent to the theft, on 14.03.2022, Dy. CSTE/Con/HQ advised the concerned authorities falling under the supervision of the second respondent, namely, Chief Engineer, Signal & Telecom (Construction), Headquarter, North Eastern Railway, Gorakhpur to withhold payment to be made to the petitioner till the loss on account of the theft is quantified.
The grievance of the petitioner is that the alleged theft had taken place in the year 2020 of which first information report was lodged on 12.11.2020 and, by now, nearly two years have elapsed yet, the amount of loss has not been quantified as a result whereof payment to be made to the petitioner has been withheld even though the amount of loss may be much less than the amount payable to the petitioner.
The petitioner therefore prays that the letter withholding the payment of all contractual dues be quashed and a direction be issued to the second respondent to release payment against the pending bills.
Learned counsel for the Union of India has submitted that this matter may be disposed off by requiring the second respondent to quantify the loss amount on account of theft, as alleged to have occurred, within a specified period so that an appropriate decision could be taken in respect of the
pending bills of the petitioner.
The suggestion given by the learned counsel for the respondents appears just.
In view of the above, we deem it appropriate to dispose of this petition by requiring the second respondent (Chief Engineer, Signal & Telecom (Construction), Headquarter, North Eastern Railway, Gorakhpur) to take appropriate decision in respect of quantification of the loss with reference to the theft reported by first information report dated 12.11.2020, preferably, within a period of eight weeks from the date a copy of this order is submitted in his office. After quantifying the loss, if the second respondent finds that after deducting the loss, money is payable to the petitioner against pending bills, appropriate decision shall be taken in respect of payment of those pending bills.
With the aforesaid observations and directions, the petition is disposed off."
We notice from the averments made in the writ petition, that the grievance of the petitioner in the present petition is identical as was raised in earlier Writ-C No.26346 of 2022.
We, therefore, deem it appropriate to dispose off this petition also on same terms as the earlier Writ-C No.26346 of 2022 was disposed off by order dated 12.9.2022 extracted above.
Order Date :- 4.11.2022 piyush
Digitally signed by PIYUSH KUMAR Date: 2022.11.10 10:33:51 IST Reason: Location: High Court of Judicature at Allahabad
1 issue framed by the court
Whether a writ petition regarding identical contractual disputes already disposed of in a previous petition can be disposed of on the same terms.
M/S Anup Kumar
Union Of India
Manoj Misra
Vikas Budhwar
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
