V. Balakrishna Eradi, J.

1. The plaintiff in O.S. No. 22 of 1972 on the file of the Subordinate Judge's Court, Trichur is the appellant before us. That is a suit instituted by him against the State of Kerala for recovery of the balance amount said to be due to him in respect of the execution of a contract work with interest and costs. The plaintiff was the successful tenderer for the construction of an earthen dam, well sluice, surplus sluice and surplus channel at Pathazhakundu, Talappilly Taluk as part of the Trichur Minor Irrigation Project. The tender submitted by the plaintiff was accepted by the Department as per a commu­nication dated 26th August 1964. But the proceedings for the acquisition of an important part of the work site, wherefrom earth was to be quarried for the dam work, seems to have taken an inordinate length of time with the result that the site was handed over to she plaintiff for commencement of the contract work only on 3rd February 1967. In the meantime, there had been a steep escalation in the labour charges, cost of materials, the cost of food to be supplied to the labourers, etc., and hence the plaintiff put in representations as per Exts. P-2 and