PANNALAL MUKHERJEE Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a suit by a contractor for recovery of Rs. 1,36,670/- from the Dominion of India as the value of certain work done in connection with a military hospital at Dacca in the year 1944. A contract was entered into between the plaintiff and the Governor-General of India in Council in November, 1943, being a lump sum contract for Rs. 14,13,647/-. The contract which is numbered DK/89 was embodied in a tender and conditions of contract as per Drawings and Specifications attached to the tender. To this there was a deviation by an order No. 2027/377/E.2 made in writing by the Garrison Engineer Dacca on 29th May, 1944. The plaintiff completed the work and submitted his final bill on or about the 14th January 1946 and received payment in full thereof. His case as laid in the plaint is that he thereafter discovered that he had made a mistake of fact & that his final bill did not include the cost of surfacing the floor with cement and sand mixed in certain proportions under the said order of the Garrison Engineer. The plaintiff alleges that by a letter dated 21st January, 1946 he communicated to the authorities about the said mistake.

(2.) The plaintiff filed this suit against the defendant after the partition of India on the 20th November, 1950. His case is that in or about the month of July 1947 the Governor-General in Council invited contractors having claims against the M.E.S. to notify particulars thereof to the Chief Engineer, Eastern Command, Ranchi and D. C. E. Billing Centre, Eastern Command, Port William, Calcutta and pursuant thereto the plaintiff submitted his claim which was investigated into In detail and ultimately accepted by the D. C. E. Billing Centre on or about the 31st March, 1948. The plaintiff relies on a notification alleged to have been published by the defendant on or about the 23rd May 1948 in certain newspapers calling upon contractors to submit to it claims arising whether in areas then in India or in Pakistan in respect of supplies and services rendered to the Government of India up to and inclusive of the 14th August, 1947 by the 1st of July 1948. The plaintiff avers that by the said notification the Government of India undertook to meet the claims of contractors residing in India. According to the plaint the Dominion of India thereafter illegally declined to pay the aforesaid sum of Rs. 1,36,670/- for which acknowledgment had already been made.

(3.) The defendant has taken various pleas by way of defence and on the pleadings the following Issues were framed for determination:--