MAHARASHTRA STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD Vs. M L BAJAJ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) .

(2.) THIS petition has been filed by the petitioners for a declaration that there is no agreement dated 23-5-1980 and consequently there is no agreement for arbitration and that, therefore, the Arbitrator would have no jurisdiction to enertain any dispute under tne Agreement.

(3.) SOMETIME in September, 1979, the Petitioners invited tenders for the work of construction of staff quarters at Koradi Thermal Power Station. According to the Petitioners, the sealed tenders for this work were to be submitted in the prescribed form which was modified by an errata prepared by the Petitioners on 28th September, 1999 and annexed to the tender forms. The controversy centres around this errata. According to the Respondents, when they sumitted their tender, they had not received the said errata and, therefore, they contend that there was no such errata at all. The tender submitted by the Respondents was accepted and the work was entrusted to the Respondents. Later on, when the Respondents submitted their bills, the Petitioners paid all the bills, but would not accept the Labour Price Bills, as according to them, those could not be the correct bills at all, inasmuch as they were all prepared without taking into account the said errata.