Government authorities have a mandatory legal obligation to release balance payments for completed works once the entitlement is verified and acknowledged, consistent with established judicial precedents regarding the settlement of contractor liabilities.

JUDGMENT :

DEVASHIS BARUAH, J.

Heard Mr. T. Baruah, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Petitioner and Mr. N. R. Sharma, the learned Standing Counsel appearing on behalf of the BTC.

2. The case of the Petitioner herein is that the Petitioner is aggrieved by the inaction on the part of the Respondent Authorities in not making payment of the amount to which the Petitioner is entitled upon completion of the work.

3. The Petitioner herein is a Government registered contractor and has been executing various types of works under the various Departments of the State of Assam for the past several years.

4. The case of the Petitioner herein is that the Respondent Authorities, after observing due procedures and formalities, issued a work order to the Petitioner, as the successful bidder, vide Memo No. C/S-27/ ACE/PWD/BTC/MSL(R&B)/2017-18/15(A) dated 12.09.2017, for the work “Construction of Mt. & Bt. Road of Jakaikona to PWD Road in Baksa District under AOP for the year 2016–17.” It is the further case of the Petitioner that, after the signing of the agreement and the furnishing of the requisite performance security, a contract agreement dated 12.09.2017, for an amount of Rs. 99,96,570/-, was executed between the Petitioner and the Respondent Authorities, and accordingly, the Petitioner commenced the work in terms of the agreement.

5. The learned counsel for the Petitioner submitted that, as per the work order, the Petitioner had completed the aforesaid works to the full satisfaction of the Respondent Authorities and within the time frame specified therein. Thereafter, the Petitioner submitted bills amounting to Rs. 99,91,522/- to the Respondent Authorities for payment; however, the said amount was not paid. The learned counsel further submitted that, being aggrieved by the inaction of the Respondent Authorities, the Petitioner submitted several representations before the Additional Chief Engineer, PWD, BTC, Kokrajhar, but no action was taken. Being aggrieved thereby, the Petitioner had approached this Court by filing a writ petition, being WP(C) No. 76/2020.

6. The learned Coordinate Bench of this Court, vide an order dated 01.12.2021, directed the Respondent Authorities to verify the entitlement of the Petitioner and upon such verification, if the Petitioner is found entitled to the amount of Rs. 99,91,522/- or any other amount, the same shall be released in favour of the Petitioner forthwith.

7. The learned counsel for the Petitioner submitted that, after the submission of the certified copy of the order dated 01.12.2021, the Respondent Authorities made a part payment of Rs.49,49,922/- and the balance amount of Rs. 50,41,600/- remains unpaid. In this regard, the Petitioner submitted a reminder notice on 01.08.2023 to the Respondent Authorities; however, the remaining balance amount has not been released. It under such circumstances, the present writ petition has been filed.

8. I have heard the learned counsels appearing on behalf of the parties and also perused the materials on record.

9. This is the second round of litigation inasmuch as in the earlier round of litigation, there was a direction upon the Respondent Authorities to carry out the necessary verification and thereupon pay as per the observations made by the judgment of the Full Bench of this Court in the case of Tamsher Ali and Others Vs. State of Assam and others reported in 2008 (4) GLT 1.

10. It is further seen that there is a verification being conducted wherein it was found that the Petitioner herein had already been paid Rs.49,49,922/- and there is a further balance of Rs.50,41,600/-. It has been submitted by Mr. N. R. Sharma, t