- (1.) Special leave granted.
(2.) It is one more avoidable litigation between Ansals, a big building contractor and the Delhi Development Authority in which allegations and counter-allegations for breach of terms of contract have been levelled against each other. We would have asked the appellant to stand in queue for hearing of the matter, but the real sufferers would be those persons who have invested their hard earned lifetime savings in the forlorn hope of an allotment of a flat in a commercial building on plot No. 38 situated in Nehru Place near Kalkaji a prime place of importance in Delhi. It is the repetition of the usual bureaucratic rigmarole from the side of the Delhi Development Authority and the usual payment of someinstalments of the lease money and thereafter withholding the payment of the balance amount on one pretext or the other from the side of the builders.
(3.) Facts in brief, shorn of details and necessary for the disposal of this case are that the auction of leasehold rights on plot No. 38, Nehru Place was knocked down in favour of M/s Ansal Properties and Industries (P) Ltd. , hereinafter referred to as "the appellant" for Rs. 8.13 crores on 19/01/1982. Twenty-five per cent of the auction amount was paid on the fall of the hammer. According to the terms and conditions of the auction the balance 75 per cent was required to be paid within 90 days of the formal acceptance of the bid which was made on 18/02/1982. The appellant admittedly did not pay the balance amount and took a stand that there was some confusion as to whether it was D. D. A. or the Union of India, which was the owner of the plot in question. The appellant also sought the indulgence of granting more time for payment on the ground that money market in relation to the land property had gone down tremendously. On 14/12/1984 revised terms were communicated by the D. D. A. to the appellant The essential terms of the revised agreement were that 25 per cent of the bid amount was to be paid within 90 days of the issuance of the letter of revised terms. 50 per cent of the remaining bid amount along with interest for delayed payments was to be paid in Five equal half yearly instalments which included the interest calculated at 18 per cent per annum. These instalments were fixed in the following manner:;