SHRI SUDHIR CHANDRA PAUL Vs. MUNICIPAL COUNCIL, REPRESENTED BY THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AND NATIONAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION LIMITED (NBCC LTD.), REPRESENTED BY THE GENERAL MANAGER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE case of the petitioner in short is that Agartala Municipal Council (for short, AMC) while intending to construct a multi -storeyed building in its land situated at Akhaura Road (Lenin Sarani), Jackson Gate, proposed to construct sixty numbers of shop rooms in the ground floor of the said multi -storeyed building, and to distribute the said shop rooms, invited applications from interested persons, and in response thereof they received huge numbers of applications and the petitioner also made an application for a shop room depositing earnest money of Rs. 2,500/ - (rupees two thousand five hundred). To sort out the distribution of sixty numbers of shop rooms, the Municipality arranged lottery in Agartala Town Hall on 30.04.1992 and the petitioner came out successful in the lottery and got allotment of a shop room bearing No. A -3 in the ground floor of the proposed building. The administrator of AMC issued a letter of allotment of shop room No. A -3 to the petitioner and in pursuance thereof the petitioner deposited 25% of the total money of Rs. 2,00,000/ - (rupees two lakhs), amounting to Rs. 50,000/ - (rupees fifty thousand) to AMC through Punjab and Sind Bank within the stipulated date. It was proposed that the construction will be taken up on 31.03.1992 and will be completed tentatively by 31.03.1993, if not earlier.

(2.) THE petitioner was eagerly expecting for the shop room to be constructed and was always enquiring about it and he was informed by the AMC that the AMC was looking for an agency for the purpose of construction and as soon as an agency is fixed construction will be taken up and after construction the rooms of shops will be distributed. It is also stated in the allotment order as well as in the broacher of AMC that each room shall be measuring 130 sq. feet and the petitioner was allotted room No. A -3, measuring 130 sq. feet in the ground floor of the building.

(3.) THEREAFTER , he issued a notice (Annexure -I to the writ petition) under Section 271 of Tripura Municipality Act, 1994 through his lawyer but the municipality failed to redress his grievance. At that juncture the petitioner found a notice published by respondent No. 2, National Building Construct Corporation Ltd. (for short, NBCC) published in a daily newspaper, namely 'Dainik Sambad' dated 12.12.2005, proposing to let out rooms for hotel, restaurant, shops, office spaces, etc. in the Jackson gate, the proposed construction site of AMC. The petitioner got surprised seeing the notice published by respondent No. 2 and could understand that there might be an alliance between AMC and NBCC and, therefore, the AMC made the proposal to return the bid money and earnest money.