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| HC dismisses petition stalling bridge construction | | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, May 2 : The state High Court has dismissed a petition by a construction company against ERA's decision not consider it to Mehjoor Nagar bridge in 2007.
"There possibly can be no worst example of the abuse of judicial process than the one presented by the case in hand," a single bench of Justice Hasnain Massodi said while dismissing the petition filed by the company, M/s Mir Sons Construction Private Limited."The petitioner company has been able not only to maintain the petition without cause but stall the execution of project of huge public importance. Project to construct 120 meter long 4 lane RCC Bridge over flood spill channel at Mahjoor Nagar Srinagar conceived way back in 2002 at the cost of Rs 598.80 lakhs is now to cost the state exchequer a few times the initial cost, thanks to apathy and indifference shown by one and all towards expeditious settlement of the dispute that in the facts and circumstances of case should not have arisen at all," the single bench said, observing the court also cannot escape responsibility for contributing to the delay in resolution of the dispute.Actually the Chief Engineer R&B in 2002 had recommended company to construct the bridge and a Contract Committee headed by Principal Secretary PWD approved the recommendation on the plea that the rates quoted by the firm was lower as compared to JKPCC for the same nature of bridges constructed by them.
While the decision by the contract committee found approval by then minister of state for works, non-availability of funds resulted in non-allotment of the contract. In the meantime, Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) decided to take up and execute the projects by utilizing the loan from Asian Development Bank. Subsequently, ERA invited offers for construction of the bridge by giving detailed qualification requirement of potential bidders in its notice issued on March 10 2007. It set April 16 2007 as deadline. M/s Mir and Sons was amongst the five construction companies who responded to the notice and after considering the technical bids, ERA held the company as non-responsive.Later, company filed writ petition and the court ordered status quo on 8 June 2007. ERA issued fresh tenders and when same was brought to court's notice, it ordered continuation of the status quo on 20 February 2008.After hearing the arguments from all the parties, the court dismissed the petition as devoid of any merit. "A threshold comment of disapproval is made regarding the delay in execution of the project of immense public importance and avoidable loss to the state exchequer in the opening para of the judgment.
The facts and events as unfolded during the course of judgment justify the lament," the court said.
However, the court said, a mere comment would not suffice. "I am conscious that any inquiry into the circumstances that led to the present litigation, is not to result in any disciplinary action. However, response at appropriate level can be triggered so that state exchequer is not exposed to any loss in future, in similar circumstances," the bench added. The court also observed that in the present case, loss to state exchequer on account of cost escalation and litigation must be anywhere between Rs 10 to Rs 15 crore. |
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