JUDGMENT

Dipak Misra, J. –

Leave granted in all the special leave petitions.

2. The controversy involved in these appeals, preferred by special leave, being similar, they were heard together and are disposed of by a common judgment. For the sake of convenience, we shall state the facts from Civil Appeal arising out of Special Leave Petition 29011 of 2013.

3. The appellant No. 1 is a company wholly owned by the Government of Karnataka and, being a State transmission utility, is a deemed licencee in the State. It invited tenders for establishing 2x8 MVA, 66/11 Sub-stations at Tavarekere in Channagiri Taluk, Davanagere District, which included the supply materials, erection and civil works on partial turnkey basis. The respondent-company participated in the bid and it was successful in the tender and, accordingly, a letter of intent was sent to it. After taking recourse to certain procedural aspects, a contract was entered into between the appellant-company and the respondent. During the performance of the contract, the respondent raised a claim before the engineer as per clause 48 of the general conditions of the contract and called upon the engineer to settle certain disputes arising i