The High Court of Calcutta, while allowing an appeal filed against the judgment and order dated May 17, 2023, passed in a batch of writ petitions, held that only in exceptional circumstances, the writ court may in the exercise of its discretion entertain the writ petition.
Brief Facts:
The Superintending Engineer of Ghani Khan Choudhury Institute of Engineering and Technology issued a Notice Inviting bona fide contractors to participate in a tender in respect of six items of work relating to Land Development by Earth filling on low land ditches. Considering the rate quoted by the writ petitioner, the proposal of the writ petitioner was accepted. The 1st and 2nd running bills raised by the petitioner were honored. The writ petitioner requested the 4th appellant herein to release the payment against the 3rd Running Account cum Final Bill. Being aggrieved by the withholding of the final payment, a writ petition was filed. The learned Single Judge allowed the writ petitions with a direction upon the Director of the Institute to release the amounts. Hence, this appeal by the institute.
Contentions of the Appellant:
The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Appellants submitted that the Assistant Engineer of the Institute appointed by NIT made objections in connection with the bills in question. He further submitted that each item of work under the Notice Inviting Tender in question should have been assigned to a public work organization and not to the writ petitioners and hence, the impugned order is liable to be set aside.
Contentions of the Respondent:
The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Respondent submitted that the writ petitioners successfully completed the works allotted to them. He contended that the learned Single Judge was right in granting relief in favor of the writ petitioners as the Institute being an entity amenable to Article 226 of the Constitution behaved arbitrarily by not releasing payment of the undisputed amount.
Observations of the court:
The court noted that the said Institute is amenable to the jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. However, the contract entered into between the Institute and the writ petitioners is a non-statutory one. The rights of the parties to the contract in the case on hand are governed only by the terms of the contract.
The Court observed that even in the case of a non-statutory contract, the jurisdiction of the writ court can be invoked if the aggrieved party is able to establish that the action of the entity amenable to writ jurisdiction is per se arbitrary. However, the Court said, the writ petitioners could not have been allowed to bypass the established civil adjudicatory process merely because the claim is against an entity amenable to writ jurisdiction. According to the Court, only in exceptional circumstances, the writ court may in the exercise of its discretion entertain the writ petition. The Court further remarked that there has been an inordinate delay in filing the writ petition which remains unexplained.
The decision of the Court:
The Calcutta High Court, allowing the appeal, held that the impugned judgment and order stand set aside.
Case Title: The Ghani Khan Choudhury Institute of Engineering and Technology & Ors. vs M/s. Malda Construction Company & Ors.
Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Hon’ble Mr. Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya
Case No.: MAT 1412 of 2023
Advocate for the Appellant: Md. Sarwar Jahan
Advocate for the Respondent: Mr. Abhratosh Majumder and Mr. Kumar Jyoti Tewari
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