- (1.) Petitioner firm is a contractor duly registered with the office of Divisional Forest Officer, Forest Region, Mirzapur. It claims that pursuant to award of contract, a work order was issued by respondents for construction of 30 houses on 12.11.2010. It is asserted that the contract work was satisfactorily completed, whereafter a physical verification was also done on 9.9.2011. Subsequently, a team of officers also conducted physical verification and submitted its report. The Assistant Engineer concerned forwarded the report stating that on 25.10.2012 the verification team found 20 houses to be as per norms. The petitioner thus represented on 2.2.2012 that he has substantially completed the work and the remaining work is withheld only due to non-release of payment against pending bills and sought release of payment. The demand for release of payment was also pressed by the petitioner.
(2.) The petitioner claims that instead of releasing the withheld payment, it was served with an order dated 24.4.2013, cancelling the contract itself on the ground that the construction since was not completed within a period of six months, as was required in the contract, as such, the contract was cancelled under Clause 44.1 of the agreement for breach of contract. The petitioner was also informed that losses caused were liable to be recovered from petitioner by virtue of Clause 45.1 of the Contract. A recovery thereafter under Z.A. Form 68 has been issued on 8.11.2013 for a sum of Rs. 22,02,454/-, which is under challenge in the present writ petition.
(3.) We have heard Sri Anil Bhushan, Advocate for the petitioner and learned Standing Counsel for the respondents-State.;