This order of the Gauhati High Court Kohima Bench disposes of a writ petition seeking direction to pay outstanding contract dues granted after verifying entitlement.
Direction to respondents to examine and verify the petitioner's claim for outstanding dues of Rs. 7,30,255/- and, if entitled, payment to be made within 4 months.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
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GAHC020004462019
THE GAUHATI HIGH COURT (HIGH COURT OF ASSAM, NAGALAND, MIZORAM AND ARUNACHAL PRADESH) KOHIMA BENCH
Case No. : WP(C) 177/2019
1:M/S DANIEL LOTHA
REGD. NO.NPW/CLASS-I/10), FELLOWSHIP COLONY, CIRCULAR ROAD, DIMAPUR, N/L, REPRESENTED BY SHRI BITISH LOTHA, S/O LT. S. LOTHA, R/O SHAKI VILLAGE, WOKHA, N/L
VERSUS
1:THE STATE OF NAGALAND AND 4 ORS
REPRESENTED BY THE COMMISSIONER AND SECRETARY TO THE GOVT. OF N/L, WORKS AND HOUSING DEPT., N/L, KOHIMA
2:THE FINANCE COMMISSIONER FINANCE DEPT. N/L KOHIMA
3:THE ENGINEER-IN-CHIEF NPWD N/L KOHIMA
4:THE CHIEF ENGINEER PWD(R AND B) N/L KOHIMA
5:THE EXECUTIVE ENGINEER PWD(R AND B) BAGHTY DIVISION BAGHTY WOKHA
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N/
Advocate for the Petitioner : MOA JAMIR
Advocate for the Respondent : GOVT ADV NL
BEFORE
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MANISH CHOUDHURY
ORDER
Date : 14-11-2019
Heard Mr. Moa Jamir, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. P. Konyak, learned Government Advocate appearing for all the respondents.
Page No.# 3/5 whereby, authorization has been made to do all acts or things in connection with the contract work and lawful acts deeds as necessary in connection of the works executed by Late Daniel Lotha. It is stated that after the death of Daniel Lotha, the Public Works Department had paid an amount of Rs. 61,06,784/- as part payment out of the total work amount due to Daniel Lotha i.e. Rs. 68,37,003/- and as a result, an amount of Rs. 7,30,255/- remained outstanding to the petitioner. In respect of the said outstanding dues to the petitioner, the petitioner made several approaches to the authorities including the respondent No. 5. The respondent No. 5, on 11.02.2013, in his communication addressed to the respondent No. 4 submitted a detailed report about the construction work, referred above, undertaken by Late Daniel Lotha. It was remarked therein that Late Daniel Lotha had successfully completed the work and out of the total amount of Rs. 68,37,003/-, an amount of Rs. 61,06,784/- had been paid to the petitioner and the balance amount of Rs. 7,30,255/- remained outstanding. Similar report was submitted by the respondent No. 5 on 23.09.2015 to the respondent No. 4. Inspite of those communications, there was no response from the respondent authorities about disbursal of the outstanding dues to the petitioner. On 11.02.2016, the respondent No. 4 wrote to the respondent No. 5 proposing for additional fund (LOC) against the pending bills amounting to Rs. 7,30,225/- of the petitioner but there was no payment to the petitioner. Being ag-
Page No.# 4/5 grieved, the petitioner served a legal notice dated 10.03.2017 to the respondents for payment of the balance amount mentioned above within a period of 30 days from the receipt of legal notice. On receipt of the legal notice, the respondent No. 4 wrote to respondent No. 1 apprising the contents of the legal notice with the request for the additional fund for payment of the aforesaid outstanding bill amount. When even after a lapse of 1 year and 8 months, the said amount was not released, the petitioner once again served a legal notice dated 02.11.2018 on the respondents. When nothing positive have been heard from the respondents, the petitioner has approached this Court by way of this petition seeking a direction to the respondents to make payment of the outstanding dues of Rs. 7,30,255/- in respect of the contract work executed and completed by Late Daniel Lotha, pursuant to the work order dated 30.03.1994 along with interest on the said amount since 1995.
Page No.# 5/5 4. Mr. P. Konyak, learned Government Advocate for the respondents has submitted that he has no objection, if such a direction is made for examination and verification of the claim of the petitioner.
With the aforesaid directions, this writ petition stands disposed of.
Sd/- JUDGE
Comparing Assistant
1 issue framed by the court
Whether this court should direct the Government authorities to examine and verify the petitioner's claim for outstanding contract dues and, if verified, direct payment within a stipulated period.
M/s Daniel Lotha
The State of Nagaland
The Finance Commissioner
The Engineer-in-Chief
The Chief Engineer
The Executive Engineer
Manish Choudhury
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
