Aggrieved by the inaction on the part of the respondents in passing the bill submitted by the petitioner, a PWD Contractor, who made an agreement with the respondent Panchayat to construct a comfort station, the petitioner has come up before this Court.
2. The petitioner alleges that the total cost of work was ₹7 lakhs. According to him, when the work was in progress, the Secretary of the Panchayat has sent a letter to the Assistant Engineer to stop the work immediately for the reason that a case is pending before this Court with regard to the place where the work was going on. Hence, the Assistant Engineer sent a letter to the petitioner asking to stop the work.
3. The petitioner alleges that the total valuation of the work already completed was ₹1,03,802/-. He further alleges that the office WP(C).2932/12 -:2:-
of the Executive Engineer had sent a letter to the Assistant Engineer to pass the bill amount. But, the bill has not been passed due to the negligence on the part of the respondents. It is with this background, the petitioner has come up before this Court.
4. The first respondent Panchayat has filed a counter affidavit.
What was stated in the counter affidavit is that the bill said to have been submitted by the petitioner was not pending due to any negligence on their part. The first respondent has not raised any contention regarding the execution of the work by the petitioner.
5. The total amount of work as per agreement was ₹ 7 lakhs and the total value of the work already completed was ₹1,03,802/-. The true copy of the descriptions of the quantifies and the value of the work already done are detailed out in Ext.P3.
6. It is relevant to note that the third respondent inspected the site and found that the petitioner has completed the first part of the work, the total value of which comes to ₹1,03,802/- and thus, he had WP(C).2932/12 -:3:-
issued a letter to the second respondent to take necessary action to pass the bill. Ext.P4 is the copy of the said letter. No satisfactory explanation is forth coming from the side of the respondents to oppose the bill submitted by the petitioner.
Therefore, the Writ Petition is disposed of directing the respondents to take appropriate steps to pass the bill within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a copy of this judgment, if the same has not been already passed by this time.
krj Sd/-
A.V.RAMAKRISHNA PILLAI JUDGE /True Copy/ P.A to Judge