SUBHASH CHANDER Vs. DELHI DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition has been filed under Sec. 11(6) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 seeking appointment of sole Arbitrator to adjudicate the disputes inter se the parties.

(2.) As per the averments made in the present petition, petitioner is a construction contractor. Respondent had invited the tender for the work of "D/o main land including 60 Mtr. & 45 Mtr. Master Plan road in Dwarka project phase-II (D/o Sector-23B, 24, 25 & 26) Subhead: Providing and laying peripheral sewer line sector-25 Dwarka Phase-II." The work was awarded to the petitioner through acceptance letter No. F31(1695)EE/WD-3/DDA/A/958 dtd. 9/11/2017 and agreement to the same effect was on 14/11/2017. Respondent is the custodian of the said agreement and as per the contract, the stipulated dates of commencement and completion for the above work were 19/11/2017 and 17/5/2018 respectively. However, according to petitioner, the work could not be completed within the stipulated time due to various hindrances on the part of the respondent, i.e. non-availability of site and breaches of contact attributable to the respondent. For these reasons, the work which was to be completed on 17/5/2018 was completed belatedly on 6/9/2018. Petitioner further claims that the work was completed on 6/9/2018 to the satisfaction of the respondent, which was duly accepted by respondent by issuing completion certificate.

(3.) It was next submitted that the respondent had granted extension of time to the petitioner but for the extended time period, no additional compensation was given. Further, as per the agreement, petitioner was required to submit final bill on or before 5/12/2018, however, respondent made it impossible for the petitioner to submit the same by the due date as it had completely failed to jointly record the final measurements in terms of the agreement and also not provided the copies of sanctioned extra/substituted and deviated items without which submission of final bill was not possible. Learned counsel submitted that as per Clause 9 of the agreement, respondent was to release the final payment to petitioner within 6 months after the completion of work i.e. on or before 5/3/2019 but the same was not done. Thereafter, disputes arose between the parties. Since Respondent was not releasing payments, the petitioner invoked arbitration clause 25 of agreement and vide notice dtd. 31/7/2019 requested respondent to appoint an arbitrator.