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8. Defects Liability Period: The agency should stand guarantee for the quality of work and performance for the work executed during Defects Liability period. Defects Liability period shall mean the period after the issue of certificate of completion of work by the Engineer-in-charge during which the structure has to function without any trouble or defects. Defects Liability period shall be 24 months from the date of completion as certified by the Engineer-in-charge. During Defects Liability period any structural defects found in the work executed, the agency is solely responsible for repairing / replacing the required part of the work and also the agency should attend to any defects immediately after the receipt of the intimation from EMPLOYER. This clause is in addition to other penalties leviable on account of quality issues included in the contract." The afore-quoted clauses would indicate the period of completion of work which is 16 months including monsoon and the petitioner had to prepare and furnish quality plan in consultation with the Assistant Engineer, Assistant Executive Engineer of the project and submit it to the Executive Engineer. The defect liability period indicates that defect liability period would be commencing from the date of completion of the project as certified by the Engineer-in- charge and shall operate for a period of 24 months from the date of completion so certified. The petitioner furnishes a Bank Guarantee in furtherance of the contract. The Bank Guarantee reads as follows:

VIJB0001301) (Bank of Beneficiary) and written confirmation to that effect is issued by Bank of Beneficiary." The defect liability period mandates that in the event of any structural defects are found in the work executed, the petitioner is solely responsible for repairing or replacing the required part of the work and the petitioner should attend to any defect immediately. The work, according to both the parties, was completed on issuance of a certificate by the Engineer-in-charge on 31-07-2021. Therefore, the defect liability period would operate up to 31-07-2023. After the construction was completed, with the issuance of work satisfactory certificate, the bills of the petitioner were cleared. The problem cropped up after clearance of bills.

10. The learned senior counsel for the petitioner would submit that every plumbing work or dampness in the walls is said to relate to infrastructure facilities, which cannot be. According to the learned senior counsel the liability upon the petitioner to cure the defects was only qua the structural defects found in the work executed. There is no structural defect in the case at hand. Therefore, the Bank guarantee could not have been encashed. I decline to accept the said submission on the very perusal of the agreement. The agreement clearly indicates that any liability for any structural defects found in the work executed, the petitioner would be solely responsible and it is required to attend to the defects for its repair immediately. The defects are being pointed out to the petitioner from time to time by the Corporation. The latest of the communication made by the Corporation to the petitioner was on 25-10-2022. It reads as follows:

11. It is not that the petitioner was taken by surprise of the encashment of Bank Guarantee coming as a bolt from the blue to the petitioner. Photographs are appended to the statement of objections filed by the Corporation. The photographs are not disputed. A perusal at the photographs would clearly indicate the kind of construction that the petitioner has undertaken of the project. They are on the face of it shoddy. Dampness in the entire quarters, water logging, cracks in the walls, cracks in the terrace, leakages from all quarters in the solar panels; door frames that are used was so poor quality that they are already eaten by termites etc. Though this Court would not assess the quality by looking at pictures, but it is always "a picture is worth a thousand words", not in all cases but in cases of this kind. The photos produced speak for themselves. Since the photos are not disputed, the liability also speaks for itself. The submission now made is that those defects would not come within the defect liability period as they all petty problems which the Corporation has to get it solved by skilled labourers, who are skilled in those works. These do not belong to structural defects or infrastructure defects are all submissions, which are only noted to be rejected.