Mphasis Engineers Co-Operative Contract And Construction Society Limited v. The State Of West Bengal And ORS.

03.08.2023 A.P.

Item No.72 Calcutta High Court In The Circuit Bench at Jalpaiguri Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction WPA No. 1360 of 2023 Mphasis Engineers Co-Operative Contract & Construction Society Limited.

Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Debajit Kundu Mr. Suman Saha ...for the Petitioner Mr. Bikramaditya Ghosh Ms. Bedashruti Bose ... for the State.

Mr. Subhasish Misra ... for the Respondent Nos. 4 to 7.

Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that pursuant to a notice inviting tender issued by the Additional Executive Officer, Cooch Behar Zilla Parishad and upon compliance of all formalities, two work orders were issued in favour of the petitioner on 23rd August, 2022 for construction of Health and Wellness Centre (sub Centre) at Chilahati More and Basarajbala respectively. The petitioner incurred huge expenses for purchasing construction and other material for the work but construction site was not provided by the authority for long for which the

petitioner was unable to commence construction work. The work orders were withdrawn/terminated by the authority by a letter issued on 28th March, 2023. The security deposit and earnest money as well as the expenses incurred by the petitioner for preparation of the construction work were not refunded by the authority despite several request made by the petitioner.

The petitioner seeks to submit a comprehensive representation in this regard before the concerned authority and prays for a direction upon the authority to consider the representation at the earliest. Learned counsel for the respondent nos. 4 to 7 places reliance on a notice under section 79(1)(c) of the West Bengal Goods and Service Tax Act and submits that the concerned authority being the Assistant Commissioner of Revenue, Commercial Tax Department, Jalpaiguri requested the Zilla Parishad not to make any payment to the petitioner on the ground that an amount of Rs. 64,78,167/- is due and payable by him to the authority.

Be that as it may, since the petitioner seeks to submit a comprehensive representation in this regard before the concerned authority, the writ petition is disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to submit the representation before the concerned authority within

seven days from date. The concerned authority being the 4th respondent herein, is directed to consider and dispose of the representation within two weeks from the date of receipt thereof upon affording reasonable opportunity of hearing to all the stakeholders including the petitioner, in accordance with law. The decision taken by the authority shall be communicated to the petitioner within a week thereof. It is made clear that this Court has not gone into the merits of the case and the concerned authority shall be at liberty to deal with the representation independently and without being influenced by any observation which may have been made in this order.

There shall however be no order as to costs.

Since no affidavit is invited, the allegations contained in the petition are deemed not to be admitted.

Urgent certified website copy of this order, if applied for, be furnished to the parties upon compliance of necessary formalities.

(Suvra Ghosh,J)