IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) THURSDAY, THE EIGHTEENTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION NO : 14661 of 2005 Between: Rayalaseema Concrete Sleepers Pvt. Limited, S.P. Road, Secunderabad, ..... PETITIONER AND South Central Railway, Rep by its Divisional Railway Manager (Works), Guntakal. .....RESPONDENT Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Aﬃdavit ﬁled herein the High Court will be pleased to to issue a Writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate writ, Order or orders, Direction of Directions declaring the action of the Respondent in with holding the amounts due to the petitioner towards the supply of Concrete Sleepers in the guise of invocation of "Risk and Cost" Clause under the Agreement Nos. 42 and 43 ralating to supply of Ballast through letter dated 9-5-2005 as illegal, arbitrary and unreasonable and to issue a consequential direction to the Respondent to release the amounts due to the petitioner towards the supply to concrete sleepers in accordance with the terms of the said contract and pass such other order or orders as this Hon'ble Court may deem ﬁt and proper in the circumstances of the case Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.V.SRINIVAS Counsel for the Respondent: MR.Gouri Shankar Sanghi The Court made the following Order: THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION No.14661 of 2005 ORDER: The petitioner is a manufacturer of pre-stressed concrete (PSC) sleepers used by Indian Railways. He (among others) entered into an agreement dated 11.06.2003 for supply of 2,48,000 PSC sleepers at an estimated cost of Rs.17 crores to the Railways. Due to disturbed industrial relations and other factors, he could not adhere to supply as scheduled and time was extended for the same on number of occasions. Finally Railways issued notice threatening to penalize the petitioner if the supplies were not made by 31.03.2005. This has been subject matter of writ proceedings in W.P.No.4856 of 2005. Ultimately the respondents by proceedings dated 26.04.2005 cancelled the contract Nos.42, 43, 108 and 109 on the ground that he failed to supply ballast. In addition to this an amount of Rs.2.5 crores towards supply of sleepers is withheld. Therefore, the petitioner approached this Court and ﬁled the present writ petition seeking a writ of Mandamus directing the respondent to realize said amount. A detailed counter-aﬃdavit is ﬁled opposing the writ petition. But it is not necessary to go into the details because it appears that during the pendency of the writ petition, the petitioner was able to get back an amount of Rs.1.5 crores and is pursuing for the balance amount with Railways. Learned counsel for the petitioner also submits that the petitioner does not want to press the writ petition at this stage. Therefore, giving liberty to the petitioner to approach the respondent for payment of balance amount and also avail statutory remedies, the writ petition is dismissed. No costs. _____________ (V.V.S.RAO, J) 18th September, 2008 GHN To 1 South Central Railway, Rep by its Divisional Railway Manager (Works), Guntakal. 2 2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{RLD}