CHICAGO CONSTRUCTIONS INTERNATIONAL PVT LTD Vs. KERALA WATER AUTHROITY REPRESENTED BY ITS MANAGING DIRECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition is filed by the petitioner seeking the following reliefs:

(2.) Material facts for the disposal of the writ petition are as follows; petitioner herein was awarded with the work, "SPAN-CWSS to Pallichal, Balaramapuram, Vilavoorkal Panchayaths Construction of 8LL capacity OHSR and 2.90 sump and pump house at Mottamoodu and supplying and laying distribution network of all zones of Pallichal Panchayat" by the Kerala Water Authority. According to the petitioner, petitioner has completed laying of 23948.40m of pipeline out of the total of 36085m, evident from Ext.P29 report. However, petitioner could not continue the construction of the overhead water tank due to the injunction granted by the Additional Munsiff's Court, Nayyattinkara in O.S.No.255 of 2015. Even though Water Authority filed an application seeking to vacate the interim order, as per Ext.P6 the application submitted by the Water Authority was dismissed. It is also the case of the petitioner that, since sanction was not received through the Kerala Water Authority for road cutting from the Public Works Department and the National Highway Authorities and the Railway Crossing sections, petitioner was not able to carry out the balance work for the past two years and from March 2016 onwards the work has virtually come to a standstill. Even though various requests were made by the petitioner to terminate the contract and carry out the final measurement and release the payment for the work already carried out by the petitioner, the same did not attain any fruitful results. As evident from Ext.P5, a sum of Rs.74,31,155/- has been retained by the Water Authority from the four part bills submitted by the petitioner towards retention amount and an initial security deposit of Rs.3 lakhs is also remaining with the Kerala Water Authority. That apart it is submitted that, measurement for work aggregating to Rs.48,58,464/- has not been measured due to the non-availability of pre-closure approval from the Superintending Engineer of the Water Authority. Thus according to the petitioner, a total amount of Rs.1,28,89,618/- is payable by the Water Authority to the petitioner. It is in this background the specified reliefs are sought for by the petitioner.

(3.) Respondents have filed a detailed counter affidavit justifying the circumstances and the reasons beyond the control of respondents in proceeding with the work securing necessary permission from respective statutory authorities etc. etc. Anyhow petitioner has submitted Exts.P36 and P37 representations before the Managing Director of the Kerala Water Authority seeking to relieve the petitioner from the contract work due to the present situation created due to the filing of the suit and the injunction granted by the civil court, which is pending consideration. It is also pointed out by the learned counsel for petitioner that, the measurement carried out by the Water Authority is not in accordance with the entire work carried out by the petitioner and unless and until final measurement is taken, petitioner will be put to various difficulties and prejudices. A reply affidavit is also filed by the petitioner to that effect.