SIMNANI CONSTRUCTIONS Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners are proprietorship concerns dealing in the business of construction of roads and buildings. They have joined hands to file this petition seeking a direction to respondent Nos. 3 to 8 to release the payments on account of admitted claims as also work done un-booked quantities. Further direction is sought to prohibit respondent Nos. 3 to 8 from leaving the station/project till the payments of the petitioners are made. Interest on the claims has also been sought by the petitioners from respondent Nos. 3 to 8.

(2.) Admittedly, the claims, that are projected by the petitioners as admitted claims of money payable by respondent Nos. 3 to 8, have arisen out of contractual transactions entered into between the petitioners on one part and respondent Nos. 3 to 8 on the other part. Hindustan Construction Co. Ltd as also Ashapura Road Lines are private entities and not the instrumentalities of the State.

(3.) Looking to the nature of dispute raised, which purely falls in commercial realm, no writ would ordinarily be maintainable to enforce a purely private contractual obligation. It is not the case of the petitioners that the contracts entered into between them and respondent Nos. 3 to 8 are statutory contracts, nor it is the case of the petitioners that respondent Nos. 3 to 8 are the instrumentalities of the State and, therefore, amenable to writ jurisdiction of this Court.