STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH Vs. RAJINDER KUMAR KASHYAP

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Accepting petitioner's prayer in his Civil Writ Petition No. 9473 of 2013, learned Single Judge vide judgment dtd. 18/7/2014 quashed the charge-sheet issued against the petitioner. This decision has been assailed by the State in this Letters Patent Appeal.

(2.) The pleaded case of the parties is that:-

(3.) The contention of the appellant-State is that the respondent-writ petitioner had failed to monitor the progress of Arbitration Case Nos. 33 and 37 of 2011, decided on 7/7/2012. The writ petitioner allowed the awards dtd. 7/7/2012, passed in the two Arbitration Cases to become final whereunder huge financial liabilities had been fastened upon the State. It was also submitted that the respondent-writ petitioner had himself received the signed copy of the arbitral awards on 7/7/2012, yet he did not take any steps for assailing the same within the period stipulated in law. The awards were processed for taking the opinion of the higher authorities only on 27/11/2012. It was further projected that the preliminary inquiry got conducted by the appellant-State showed that no timely steps were taken for filing objections under Sec. 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act against the awards passed by the Arbitrator on 7/7/2012. The preliminary inquiry reported that collusion of writ petitioner with the contractors for allowing limitation to expire, could not be ruled out.