Sl. No

Date

Office Notes,

reports, orders or

proceedings or

directions and

Registrar’s order

with Signatures

COURT’S OR JUDGES’S ORDERS

WPMS No.480 of 2022

Hon’ble Sharad Kumar Sharma, J.

Mr. Deep Chandra Joshi, Advocate, for the

petitioner.

Mr. G.S. Negi, Brief Holder, for the State

of Uttarakhand.

Mr. Kartikey Hari Gupta, Advocate, for

the respondent.

As a consequence of the contractual

liability, which has arisen on account of the

cancellation of the contract, the respondent

Municipality, has initiated the proceedings of

recovery of the amount under Section 168, which

has been sought to be recovered by invoking the

provisions contained under Section 173 of the

U.P. Municipality Act, 1916, and the Executive

Officer is said to have referred the recovery

proceedings

before

the

Collector

by

the

impugned Recovery Citation dated 31.06.2021.

The petitioner has approached this Court,

at a much belated stage on the pretext, that he has

been communicated with the said notice dated

31.06.2021, at a much belated stage by the

respondents, and accordingly, he has responded

to the recovery citation also by approaching the

Executive Officer, Nagar Panchayat, Sultanpur,

Udham Singh Nagar. The same is pending

consideration, and since the petitioner is

apprehending a coercive action which may be

taken in pursuance to the impugned order dated

31.06.2021, he has preferred this writ petition.

After having heard the learned counsels

for the parties to the writ petition, this Court is of

the view that, at this stage, when the notice itself

is put to challenge at the belated stage by filing a

writ petition in the year 2022, and that too in the

light of the fact that when the petitioner himself

has responded to the notice before the Executive

Officer, Nagar Panchayat, Sultanpur, Udham

Singh Nagar, on 24.02.2022.

In order to balance the equities, this Court

is of the view that let the Executive Officer itself

decide upon first, the financial liability which the

petitioner has to cater towards the contractual

amount, which was a subject matter of the

recovery citation and take a decision within a

period of one month from today, and for a period

of one month, no coercive action in pursuance to

the notice dated 31.06.2021, would be taken

against the petitioner.

Subject to the aforesaid observations, the

writ petition stands disposed of.

(Sharad Kumar Sharma, J.)

14.03.2022

NR/