Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

16. With regard to the vague allegation that there were other dues and that Leighton had failed to perform the work, the learned Senior Counsel submitted that no letter had been issued till 7th April, 2020 in which the I.E. had found fault with the works being carried out by Leighton. According to Leighton, the work in respect of the project was complete in material respects at the time DLF applied for Occupation Certificate in November, 2016 and obtained the same on 27th July, 2017 i.e., almost 3 years prior to the invocation of the BGs. This would indicate that the work was virtually complete even prior to the stipulated date of completion i.e., 3rd September, 2017. The Occupation Certificate was issued by the Director, Town and Country Planning Department, Haryana, in respect of the completed project on the basis of various certificates issued by the Statutory Authorities, including Fire Safety, which were pre-conditions for the application for Occupation Certificate. These statutory certificates would not have been issued had the work remained incomplete. It was in this background that Leighton had requested for issuance of C.C. under Clause 61 of the General Condition of Contract ("GCC", for short) to DLF but DLF withheld the C.C. for more than two years, without any valid reasons, since 1st June, 2018. It is also submitted that on the basis of an agreement reached by the parties on 16th January, 2018, recorded by email dated 25th January, 2018, works of value of Rs.10,40,00,000/- were agreed to be de-scoped and this agreement was also confirmed through amendments. This fact was not disputed by DLF, yet, in its letter dated 7 th April, 2020, it falsely alleged that Leighton had not carried out such works that were already de-scoped.