IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA

Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No. 2797 of 2021

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……………Petitioner

Versus

... ... Respondent/s

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Appearance :

For the Petitioner :

Mr. P.K. Shahi, Sr. Adv.

Mr. Ranjeet Kumar, Adv.

For the State

:

Mr. Manoj Kumar Ambastha, SC-26

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CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE MOHIT KUMAR SHAH

ORAL JUDGMENT

Date : 01-09-2021

The only relief prayed for and pressed by the

Ld. Sr. Counsel for the petitioner in the present

case is for setting aside the office order dated

24.11.2020

whereby

and

whereunder

the

agreement bearing agreement no. 1 SBD 2019/20,

entered into between the petitioner and the

Respondent-Executive

Engineer,

Building

Construction Department, Building Division, Buxar,

has been rescinded.

2.

The brief facts of the case are that a NIT was

published

by

the

Building

Construction

Department, Bihar, for construction of Government

Engineering

College

at

Dumraon,

Buxar,

in

pursuance whereof, the petitioner and two others

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had submitted their tender and ultimately, the

petitioner was declared as the successful bidder

and a work order dated 27.7.2017 was issued by

the Executive Engineer, Building Division, Buxar, in

favour of the petitioner, whereafter an agreement

was executed and 18 months time was fixed for

completion of the work. It has been contended by

the petitioner that since the construction site could

not be made available to the petitioner, a fresh

work order dated 14.8.2019 was issued in favour

of the petitioner and the stipulated time frame for

completion of work was fixed as 18 months,

whereafter

an

agreement

was

executed

on

01.10.2019. It is a matter of record that on

account of disturbance on the site, there being no

proper road to reach the site, structural drawing of

the project being not handed over to the petitioner

in time and on account of the lockdown due to

outbreak of Covid-19 Pandemic, the project in

question could not be completed within time.

Nonetheless, the Chief Engineer (South), Building

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Construction Department, Bihar, Patna, vide letter

dated 6.11.2020, had directed the Executive

Engineer, Building Division, Buxar, to cancel the

agreement of the petitioner, whereafter the

Executive Engineer, Building Division, Buxar, by

the

impugned

order

dated

24.11.2020,

has

rescinded the agreement.

3. The short point raised by the learned Senior

Counsel, Sri P.K. Shahi, is that a bare perusal of

the impugned order dated 24.11.2020 would show

that the Executive Engineer, Building Division,

Buxar, has cancelled the agreement in question on

the direction of the Chief Engineer (South),

Building Construction Department, Bihar, Patna, as

contained

in

letter

dated

6.11.2020.

It

is

submitted that Clause 1 of the general conditions

of contract provides for execution of an agreement

between the competent authority on behalf of the

Governor of Bihar and the Contractor. Clause 2(iv)

thereof defines the Engineer-in-Charge to be the

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Engineer Officer, who shall supervise and be the

in-charge of the work and who shall sign the

contract on behalf of the Governor of Bihar. Clause

3 and Clause 14 of the “Conditions of Contract”

stipulates the situation under which the contract

can be determined.

4.

The learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner

has further submitted that the agreement in

question has been entered into between the

petitioner and the Executive Engineer, Building

Division, Buxar, hence, the competent authority to

rescind / terminate the contract in question was /

is the Executive Engineer, Building Division, Buxar,

nonetheless, the competent authority under the

contract, who is authorized to terminate the

contract