Shankar vs Union Territory Of J&K And Others

Rajnesh Oswal, J

With the consent of the learned counsel for the parties, the present petition was taken up for final disposal.

The petitioner has filed the present petition for directing the respondents to release the payment of Rs. 8,65,000/- in favour of the petitioner against the construction of veterinary dispensary at Ransoo Non-Snow pursuant to the e-NIT No. 13 of 2019-20 dated 28.08.2019. It is stated that the petitioner pursuant to aforesaid e-NIT, was allotted the work for construction of veterinary dispensary at Ransoo. The petitioner completed the construction work upto slab level and bill was accordingly submitted to the respondents. The said bill was forwarded by respondent No. 6 to respondent No. 4 but the payment was not made to the petitioner. It is further stated that the petitioner sent a legal notice dated 17.11.2020 to the respondents. The respondent No. 4 in its reply dated 29.03.2021 stated that the Executing Agency has raised the bill amounting to Rs. 8.65 lacs and error has occurred in the portal of the Jammu and Kashmir Infrastructure Development Finance Limited (JKIDFC) and due to error of JKIDFC portal, the payment could not be made. It was further stated in the reply that there is no bad intention to delay the pending dues of the petitioner but sincere efforts are being made to get the matter resolved.

Response stands filed by the respondents in which it has been stated that the present petition is not maintainable due to an arbitration clause in the contract and the department is making its sincere efforts for the release of payment of Rs. 8,65,000/- in favour of the contractor-petitioner. The matter regarding rectification of error on JKIDFC portal and revalidation of ESVHD share has been taken with the concerned quarter so that the issue be resolved and the initial payment of the bill amounting to Rs. 8,65,000/- may be drawn by the executing agency in favour of the petitioner. It is further submitted that the Deputy Commissioner, Reasi was also requested for transfer of the land on which the building is under construction.

Mr. Yaggik Gupta, learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that there is an admission on the part of the respondents for release of the amount of Rs. 8.65 lacs and merely an arbitration clause in the agreement would not debar the petitioner from approaching this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, particularly when there is no dispute between the parties and claim is admitted by the respondents.

On the contrary, Mr. K. D. S. Kotwal, learned Dy. AG has vehemently argued that there is an arbitration clause and the present writ petition is not maintainable and land on which the building is being constructed is yet to be transferred in favour of the respondents.

Heard and perused the record.

From the record, this Court finds that there is in fact no dispute with regard to the payment of Rs. 8,65,000/- to the petitioner as the respondents have admitted the liability of Rs. 8,65,000/- in their response. So far as the objection raised by the respondents that there is an arbitration clause, therefore the writ petition is not maintainable, cannot come to the rescue of the respondents particularly in view of the admission made by the respondents with regard to their liability. More so the issue that the land has not been transferred in favour of respondents has got nothing to do with the payment due to the petitoner.

In view of the fact that there is a categoric admission on the part of the respondents with regard to the liability of Rs. 8,65,000/- regarding the work executed by the petitioner, the present writ petition is disposed of with a direction to the respondents to release the payment of Rs. 8,65,000/- within a period of three months from the date a copy of this order is made available to the respondents. In the event, the payment is not released by the respondents within the aforesaid period, the respondents shall pay interest at the rate of 6% per annum from 17.11.2020 till the actual payment is made.

Disposed of.