Judgment

S.B. Majmudar, J.-Leave granted in all these appeals.

2. By consent of parties, these appeals were heard together as they arise out of a common judgment passed by the Division Bench of the High Court in original side appeals as well as out of identical orders passed in review petitions arising from the same common judgment. A few relevant facts leading to these appeals are required to be noted at the outset.

Background Facts :

3. The common appellant is a contractor and common respondents are the Konkan Railway Corporation and its officers. The contractor entered into four contracts for executing the work of the respondent No. 1 corporation, which had issued an advertisement inviting tenders for the contruction of the “Mangalore-Udupi New Broad Gauge Railway Line Earthwork” and for other ancillary works. Four different contracts were entered into by the appellant-contractor with the respondent-corporation in connection with the laying of the aforesaid broad gauge railway line. It is not in dispute between the parties that the con­tractor did proceed with the work for some time, but ultimately all the four contracts giving rise to these appeals were terminated by the responden