Citation: M/s Jai Mata Di Construction Company v. State of Bihar & Ors., Patna High Court | CNR No. BRHC011042852023
Where the contract entrusts a contractor with construction followed by a fixed maintenance period, the maintenance period must be counted from the actual date of completion shown in the departmental records, and a writ court can direct the authorities to verify the measurements and pay the admissible dues under the agreement. The court does not need to decide every disputed claim, such as GST or interest, where the dispute can be narrowed down by admitted facts.
The Patna High Court has directed the Bihar Rural Works Department to verify its records and pay a contractor’s admissible maintenance dues for the last 150 metres of two roads built under the Bihar Kosi Basin Development Project. The court said that the five-year maintenance period must run from the actual date of completion.
M/s Jai Mata Di Construction Company, a Begusarai contractor, had been awarded the construction and five years’ maintenance of two roads in Saharsa under an agreement of 2015-16. The department said that it had already paid Rs 6.83 crore for the construction and that the contractor maintained the roads for only three years before stopping, so his claim for the full five years could not be accepted. It also said that the contractor had not claimed GST and that the security deposit was not due until the five-year period was complete. The contractor said that the work was substantially completed in 2017-18 and recorded in the Measurement Book. He also said the department had earlier acknowledged this, and had unfairly fixed the completion date as 20 January 2020. He claimed maintenance charges, higher GST, the security deposit, 18% interest and costs. Justice G. Anupama Chakravarthy found that the initial problem concerned only part of the road. Of the disputed stretch, 200 metres were completed on 15 March 2019 and the final 150 metres on 20 January 2020, which the department’s own letter of September 2020 and the completion certificate support. The dispute was therefore limited to those 150 metres and the maintenance for them. The court directed the department to check the Measurement Book and other records and pay the admissible maintenance dues for those 150 metres after the five-year period is over, as per the agreement and rules, within three months of receiving a copy of the order. It stressed that the actual completion date must be strictly followed when counting the five years, and it did not decide the other claims separately.