Payment for supplied materials cannot be withheld due to procedural discrepancies in administrative processes.

JUDGMENT

The above writ petition is filed with following prayers :

a) “Call for the entire records leading upto Ext.P12 and quash the same by issuing a writ of certiorari, or any other appropriate writ, order or direction in so far as it affects the petitioner.

b) Issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction directing the respondents to sanction and disburse entire amount due to the petitioner in respect of supply of materials for Thattamparambu Pulipra Shalimar Road Metalling as per Ext.P3, P5 and P6 expeditiously within a time frame fixed by this Hon’ble Court with 9% interest from the date of final bill till the date of disbursal of the said amount.

c) Issue such other appropriate writs, orders or directions as this Hon’ble Court deems fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case.

d) Dispense with filing of the translation of vernacular documents produced by the petitioner in the above case “

2. The main prayer in this writ petition is to call for Ext.P12 and quash the same by issuing a writ of certiorari and also to sanction and disburse the entire amount due to the petitioner in respect of supply of materials to Thattamparambu Pulipra Shalimar Road Metalling as per Exts.P3, P5 and P6. A counter affidavit is filed by the 4^th respondent. It will be better to extract the relevant portion of the counter affidavit.

5. The estimated amount for supply of material in connection with the work of Thattamparam Pulipra Shalimar Road in Ward 16 was Rs.3,76,200/-. However the petitioner has supplied only materials worth Rs.2,90,557.72/-. Road construction is currently completed using this materials.

6. For this work, seven days muster roll was taken from 24.02.2023 to 02.03.2023 and this work was completed. Though the Muster Roll No.21896 had ten members in it, the workers who were participated in the work at work site had only one member from it and the rest nine members were from outside. After a complaint was lodged with the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS Ombudsman and the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau regarding the authenticity of the signatures of the workers involved in the said work, the then Grama Panchayath Secretary closed the muster roll as “zero attendance’ in MIS in order to avoid the misuse of Government fund. But ‘the Grama Panchayat Secretary was not aware of the fact that there was a technical barrier to allow the amount of material to the vendor when zero muster roll was made in the MIS under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS.

7. Since the said work Thattaparambu Pulipra Shalimar Road’s muster roll was made ‘zero attendance’ and data entry for the year 2022-23 was closéd, it is impossible to pay the unskilled wages. The material payment can only be made after the payment of unskilled wages. Therefore, the one unskilled worker who was included in muster roll could not paid. It is evidence that the above work was not done in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Central Government. So it is instructed by the 3^rd respondent vide letter No.NREGA/67A/2022-A3 dated 05.08.2023 that the material amount could not be given to the vendor for the said work through MIS. Moreover, the vendor ie. the petitioner has not yet submitted the GST bill of the materials supplied for the said work to the 2^nd respondent till date.”

3. A perusal of the above counter affidavit, it is clear that the petitioner only supplied materials and the material supplied is worth Rs.2,19,557.72/-. There is no dispute on that aspect. It is also clear that there is some problem to the Management Information System. Whatever that may be, when there is no dispute to the fact that the petitioner supplied the material and he is entitled the amount. The respondent Nos. 2 to 4 will see that the amount will be disbursed to the petitioner within a time frame, after curing the defects, if any.

Therefo