IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH AT JABALPUR BEFORE HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE VIVEK RUSIA &

HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE PRADEEP MITTAL

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ON THE 13 OF NOVEMBER, 2025 CIVIL REVISION No. 1613 of 2001 THE STATE OF M.P. & ORS Versus RAWAL CHAND SAHNI Appearance:

ShriAbhijeet Awasthi - Deputy Advocate General for petitioner.

Shri Shravan Kumar Rao - Advocate for respondent/State.

ORDER Per: Justice Pradeep Mittal

1. The present civil revision, preferred under Section 19 of the Madhya Pradesh Madhyastham Adhikaran Adhiniyam, 1983, calls in question the award dated 14.07.2001 passed by the Madhya Pradesh Arbitration Tribunal, Bhopal, in Reference Case No. 167/1991 whereby claim of petitioner has partly been allowed directing the respondent to pay Rs.1,02,376/-.

2. For the sake of convenience, the parties shall be referred to by their respective titles as used before the Tribunal.

3. Facts in short are that the petitioner is registered contractor of M.P. Water Resources Department in Category A-2. The Executive Engineer, Irrigation Division, Chhindwara invited tender vide N.I.T. No. 3 of

1980-81 for the work of “Kawadia Tank Project in Chhindwara district, excavation of puddle trench, seepage drain, boulder toe-wall, earth work of sludge and excavation of spill channel etc. complete”, and the tenders were received on 30.9.80. The probable amount of contract was Rs. 11.70 lakh and period of completion was twelve months excluding three months of rainy season. Cement required for the work at the rate of Rs. 94/- per bag and steel at the rate of Rs. 3/- per Kg were to be supplied to the contractor at sub- divisional store Chhindwara. The tenders were submitted in Form “B” (item- rate contract). The Chief Engineer Rehand-Canal Basin Rewa, M.P. accepted the lowest item rate tender of Shri Rameshchand Sahni, amounting to Rs. 16.04 lakhs. The Executive Engineer, Irrigation Division, Chhindwara, issued orders to commence the work on 3.3.81 after drawing agreement No. 19/B.S.C.A./1980-81 with the petitioners. The date of completion of work was stipulated as 02.06.1981 after taking into account the rainy season in between the construction period of twelve months.

4. Some part of work was withdrawn from the contractor and for balance work Rs. 15,06,177.35 was paid as final bill on 20.10.85. The work was completed on 14.8.83. The withdrawn work was got executed by debitable agency.

5. The department did not perform its part of the contract, failing in its obligation and caused breach of contract. The department did not supply copy of agreement, drawing, Designs, specification etc. and kept the petitioner in dark. The department did not give possession of the complete site (spill-channel); the borrow areas remained in possession of the land owners who did not let the petitioner borrow earth from those areas. The department arbitrarily started deducting security deposit at the rate of eight percent from the bills instead of five percent as provided for in the contract. The department withdrew the earth work between chainages 5 to chainage 12 under clause 4.3.3.3 of the agreement and engaged another debitable agency to execute the withdrawn work at the risk and cost of the petitioner. The department compelled the petitioner to do extra work, for which it failed to fix the rates.The petitioner has submitted his claim which is as under:-