The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement for providing details/breakup of any deduction/adjustment made from the final bill, especially in cases involving royalty on earth work.

JUDGMENT :

The present writ petition has been filed for issuance of direction upon the respondents to release the balance amount from the final bill of the petitioner under the head of royalty on the earth work which, according to the petitioner, is beyond the terms of agreement.

2. It is jointly submitted by the learned counsel for the parties that the present writ petition is covered by the order dated 23.12.2021 passed by this Court in W.P.(C) No. 1882 of 2021 [Bhagirath Saw Vs. The State of Jharkhand & Ors.].

3. Perused the order dated 23.12.2021 passed in the aforesaid writ petition, the relevant paragraphs of which read as under :

“2. A counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of the respondents referring to clause 3.3 of Section-III Part-2 of the special conditions for F2 contract which provides as under:

“If the Royalty clearance certificate for mines/minerals used in the work is not produced with the bill, Royalty will be deducted from the concerned running bill, as per instruction of the Department of Mines. Production of royalty clearance certificate along with the final bill is a must, failing which final bill will neither be passed nor paid, and for such non-payment or delay in payment, the whole and sole responsibility will be of contractor alone.”

3. It has also been stated in the counter affidavit that the issue raised by the petitioner in the present writ petition has attained finality in terms with the judgment dated 28.06.2016 passed by learned Division Bench of this Court in L.P.A. No. 705 of 2015 (The State of Jharkhand & Ors. Vs. M/s. MRKR-Pallavi-Upkar JV through its authorized signatory M.Vasudeva Reddy & Ors.) and other analogous cases wherein it has been held that the contractors are liable to make payment of royalty as per Entry No. -19 of the notification dated 27.12.2010 issued by the State of Jharkhand in exercise of power conferred under Section 15 of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957. It has also been held in the said judgment that the State authorities are at liberty to recover the amount of royalty with respect to “ordinary earth used for filling or levelling purposes in construction of embankments, roads, railways, buildings” under Entry No.-19 of the notification dated 27.12.2010.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that it thus appears from the aforesaid stand taken by the respondents in the counter affidavit that an amount of Rs.8,00,000/- has been deducted from the final bill of the petitioner under the head of royalty as per Entry No.-19 of the notification dated 27.12.2010 issued by the state government. Though the issue of deduction of royalty to be charged for use of ordinary earth has been settled by the learned Division Bench of this court in L.P.A. No. 705 of 2015 and other analogous cases, yet the respondents have not given the details/breakup of deduction of Rs.8,00,000/- made from the final bill of the petitioner with respect to work done in pursuance of agreement no. 05 F2 of 2018-19.

5. The aforesaid submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner appears to be justified as the respondents, even in the counter affidavit have not given the details/breakup of deduction of royalty towards ordinary earth made by them while making payment of final bill to the petitioner.

6. Hence, the present writ petition is disposed of directing the Executive Engineer, Rural Development Department (Rural Works Affairs), Works Division, Koderma (the respondent no. 4) to give details/breakup of aforesaid deduction made from the final bill of the petitioner within four weeks from the date of receipt/production of a copy of this order.”

4. According to learned counsel for the petitioner, in the present case also, though the amount of earnest money as well as security deposit has been adjusted in the final bill by way of royalty on the earth work, yet details/breakup of the said adjustment made from the final bill of the petitioner in pursuance of Agreement No. 03 F2