Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Proprietor Smt. Kuheli Ghosh vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors on 6 September, 2017
Author: Debangsu Basak
Bench: Debangsu Basak
1
6‐09‐2017
S.D.
W.P. 22323 (W) of 2017
B.G. Engineering, A Proprietorship
Concern represented by its sole
Proprietor Smt. Kuheli Ghosh
Versus
The State of West Bengal & Ors.
Mrs. Aiswarja Gupta
Mr. Salil Kumar Ghosh
Mr. S.K. Adhikari
....For the petitioner.
Ms. Chama Mukherjee
Ms. Subhra Nag
....For the State.
The petitioner seeks payment due to it in respect of
the work order issued under a contract.
Learned Advocate for the petitioner submits that, the
petitioner had participated in a tender process for supply,
installation and fabrication of M.S. racks including M.S. grills
with allied works at CFWS, Bagbazar. She refers to the work
order, which is dated March 8, 2013 and submits that, the
petitioner had completed the entire work within the time
stipulated. The petitioner had raised its value bills on the
respondents. The respondents did not pay the same.
Repeated requests were made in writing including issuance 2 of demand notice dated July 17, 2017. In spite thereof, the authorities have not paid the bills. She draws the attention of the Court to the various terms and conditions of the work order including the payment clause, which stipulates that, 10% of the bill amount would be released after one year from the completion of work.
The State is represented.
The contract in question is not a statutory one, nor any public law is demonstrated to be involved. There is a question of limitation in the facts of the present case. The work order is dated March 8, 2013. Allowing a period of one year from the date of completion of the work, which was required to be done within 15 days of the issuance of the work order, the date of completion of the work would take the petitioner to September 23, 2013 and one year therefrom to September 22, 2014. The limitation for the claim of the petitioner commences from September 23, 2014. The claim made by the petitioner presently is beyond the period prescribed under the Limitation Act, 1963 for the purpose of filing of suit for recovery of a claim on account of a contract. 3 A period of more than three years has lapsed from the last date being September 23, 2013 till the filing of the writ petition in August 24, 2017.
Limitation is a mixed question of fact of law. In the facts of the present case, since disputed and complicated questions of facts are involved, it would not be prudent to interfere.
W.P. No. 22323 (W) of 2017 is disposed of. No order as to costs.
Urgent website certified copies of this order, if applied for, be made available to the parties upon compliance of the formalities.
(Debangsu Basak, J.) 4