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HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR
2026:CGHC:22566
ARBR No. 47 of 2024
ARBR No. 48 of 2024
ARBR No. 4 of 2025
ARBR No. 6 of 2025
ARBR No. 47 of 2024
S K Samanta And Co (P) Ltd., A Company Incorporated Under The Companies Act, 1956 Through Its Director Mr. Aruanshu Brahma, Having Its Registered Office And Carrying On Business, Inter Alia At Suite No. 4a, 2/5, Sarat Bose Road, Kolkata - 700020. ---Applicant(s)
Versus
1 - South Eastern Coalfields Limited, Through Secretary, Labour Department 27, Sector 27, Nawagaon Parsatti, Atal Nagar- Nava Raipur, Chhattisgarh - 492101 As Per Honble Court Order Dated 24-06-2025
2 - The State Of Chhattisgarh Through Secretary, Labour Department 27, Sector 27, Nawagaon Parsatti, Atal Nagar- Nava Raipur, Chhattisgarh - 492101 As Per Hon’ble Court Order Dated 24-06-2025
3 - Chhattisgarh Building And Other Construction Workers Welfare Board Constituted Under Section 18(1) Of The Building And Other Construction Workers (Regulation Of Employment And Conditions Of Service ) Act. 1996 Having Its Office At Sector 24 Office Complex Block A- 1st Floor Atal Nagar Nawa Raipur As Per Hon’ble Court Order Dated 24-06-2025 --- Respondent(s)
ARBR No. 48 of 2024
S. K. Samanta And Co. (P) Ltd. A Company Incorporated Under The Companies Act, 1956 Through Its Director Mr. Arunanshu Brahma, Having Its Registered Office And Carrying On Business, Inter Alia, At Suite No. 4a, 2/5, Sarat Bose Road, Kolkata- 700020 ---Applicant(s)
Versus
1 - South Eastern Coalfields Limited Through Secretary, Labour Department 27, Sector 27, Nawagaon Parsatti, Atal Nagar- Nava Raipur, Chhattisgarh - 492101 As Per Honble Court Order Dated 24-06-2025
2 - The State Of Chhattisgarh Through Secretary, Labour Department 27, Sector 27, Nawagaon Parsatti, Atal Nagar- Nava Raipur, Chhattisgarh - 492101 As Per Hon’ble Court Order Dated 24-06-2025
3 - Chhattisgarh Building And Other Construction Workers Welfare Board Constituted Under Section 18(1) Of The Building And Other Construction Workers (Regulation Of Employment And Conditions Of Service ) Act. 1996 Having Its Office At Sector 24 Office Complex Block A- 1st Floor Atal Nagar Nawa Raipur As Per Hon’ble Court Order Dated 24-06-2025 --- Respondent(s)
ARBR No. 4 of 2025
S.K. Samanta And Co. (P) Ltd. A Company Incorporated Under The Companies Act, 1956 Through Its Director Mr. Arunanshu Brahma, Having Its Registered Office And Carrying On Business, Inter Alia, At Suite No. 4A, 2/5, Sarat Bose Road, Kolkata 700020 --- Applicant(s)
versus
1 - South Eastern Coalfields Limited Through Secretary, Labour Department 27, Sector 27, Nawagaon Parsatti, Atal Nagar Nava Raipur, Chhattisgarh 492101
2 - The State Of Chhattisgarh Through Secretary, Labour Department 27, Sector 27, Nawagaon Parsatti, Atal Nagar Nava Raipur, Chhattisgarh 492101
3 - Chhattisgarh Building And Other Construction Workers Welfare Board Constituted Under Section 18(1) Of The Building And Other Construction Workers (Regulation Of Employment And Conditions Of Service) Act, 1996 Having Its Office At Sector 24, Office Complex, Block-A 1st Floor, Atal Nagar, Nawa Raipur --- Respondent(s)
ARBR No. 6 of 2025
S K Samanta And Co (P) Ltd. A Company Incorporated Under The Companies, Act, 1956 Through Its Director Mr. Arunanshu Brahma, Having Its Registered Office And Carrying On Business, Inter Alia, At Suite No. 4 A, 2/5, Sarat Bose Road, Kolkata 700020. ---Applicant(s)
Versus
1 - South Eastern Coalfields Limited Constituted Under Section 18(1) Of The Building And Other Construction Workers (Regulation Of Employment And Conditions Of Service ) Act. 1996 Having Its Office At Sector 24 Office Complex Block A- 1st Floor Atal Nagar Nawa Raipur (As Per Hon’ble Court Order Dated 24-06-2025)
2 - The State Of Chhattisgarh Through Secretary, Labour Department 27, Sector 27, Nawagaon Parsatti, Atal Nagar- Nava Raipur, Chhattisgarh - 492101 (As Per Hon’ble Court Order Dated 24-06-2025)
3 - Chhattisgarh Building And Other Construction Workers Welfare Board Constituted Under Section 18(1) Of The Building And Other Construction Workers (Regulation Of Employment And Conditions Of Service ) Act. 1996 Having Its Office At Sector 24 Office Complex Block A- 1st Floor Atal Nagar Nawa Raipur (As Per Hon’ble Court Order Dated 24-06-2025) --- Respondent(s)
(Cause Title Taken from Case Information System)
For Applicant(s) : Mr. Abhijeet Chaterjee, Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. Aman Pandey and Mr. Vinamra Shrivastava
For Respondent/SECL : Mr. Vaibhav Shukla, Advocate.
For Respondent/State : Mr. S.S.Baghel, Government Advocate.
Hon’ble Mr. Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice
Date of Hearing : 05/05/2026
Date of Order : 13/05/2026
C A V Order
1. Since the facts and issues involved in these four arbitration request petitions are similar, they are being considered and decided by this common order and ARBR No. 48/2024 is taken as the lead case.
2. The applicant-S.K.Samanta & Co. (Pvt.) Ltd. has filed these arbitration request petitions under Section 11(6) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 seeking appointment of a Sole Arbitrator for adjudicating the dispute that has arisen between the parties.
3. The facts, in brief, as projected by the applicant {in ARBR No. 48/2024} is that the applicant Company is an ISO 9001-2008 Company started civil construction contracts as a proprietary / partnership firm has been in the business of executing EPC Contracts ever since its incorporation in 1982 in a wide arena of projects pertaining to Central and State Governments, Public Sector Companies, Railways, Power Plants, Steel Plant, Mines, Roads, Bridges etc. Pursuant to a Notice Inviting Tender (for short, the NIT) being NIT No. GM(C)/SECL/BSP/Et-Tk/ GVR/2020/185 dated 15.06.2020 issued on behalf of the respondent No. 1-South Eastern Coalfields Ltd. (for short, the SECL) inviting tenders for carrying out work of design, and commissioning of workshop and store of Gevra OCP, including maintenance during defect liability period (DLP), on turnkey basis, the applicant submitted its bid/offer for the said work. The said NIT comprised of, inter alia, ‘Instructions to Bidders’ (for short, the ITB) and ‘General Terms and Conditions of Contract’ (for short, the GCC). The offer of the applicant was accepted and a Letter of Award Ref. No. GM(C)/SECL/BSP/WO/GVR/2020/95 dated 08.11.2020 was issued in favour of the applicant for the said work. Clause 31 and 32 of the ITB provided that an amount of 1% of the work value payable to the contractors will be deducted from all bills towards worker’s welfare under Building and Other Construction Worker’s Welfare Cess Rules, 1998 and Building and other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act, 1996. In terms of the provisions of clause 20.5 of ITB, a formal agreement dated 06.03.2021 was executed between the parties for carrying out the said work covered by the Purchase Order. The ITB and the GCC were part of the agreement dated 06.03.2021. While making payment of running invoices/ bills of the applicant, the respondent-SECL started deducting cess in terms of clause 31 of the ITB as set out above.
4. Mr. Abhijeet Chatterjee, learned Senior Advocate appearing for the applicant would submit that in 1996, the Parliament enacted the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 (for short, the BOCW Act). Section 1(4) of the BOCW Act, insofar as it is material for the present purpose, provides that it shall be applied to every establishment which employs, or had employed on any day of the preceding twelve months, ten or more building workers in any building or other construction work. The expression “establishment” is defined in Section 2(1)(j) of the “BOCW Act” which states that “establishment” means any establishment belonging to, or under the control of, Government, anybody corporate or firm, an individual or association or other body of individuals which or who employs building workers in any building or other construction work; and includes an establishment belonging to a contractor, but does not include an individual who employs such workers in any building or construction work in relation to his own residence the total cost of such construction not being more than rupees ten lakhs. Further, the expression “building or other construction work” is defined in Section 2(1) (d) of the BOCW Act to mean the construction, alteration, repairs, maintenance or demolition, of or, in relation to, buildings, streets, roads, railways, tramways, airfields, irrigation, drainage, embankment and navigation works, flood control works (including storm water drainage works), generation, transmission
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