Andhra HC (PreTelangana) State Water And Sanitation Mission, ... vs The A.P. Micro And Small Enterprises ... on 25 June, 2015 Equivalent citations: AIR 2015 (NOC) 1178 (HYD.) THE HONBLE SRI JUSTICE NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO W.P. No.13639 of 2014 25062015 State Water and Sanitation Mission, Erramanzil, Hyderabad rep. by its Project Director. .Petitioner The A.P. Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council, Hyderabad & another..Respondents Counsel for the petitioner: GP for Panchayat Raj & Rural Development (TG) Counsel for the Respondents : Sri S. Dwarakanath <GIST: >HEAD NOTE: ? Cases referred THE HONBLE SRI JUSTICE NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO WRIT PETITION No. 13639 OF 2014 O R D E R: The State Water and Sanitation Mission is the petitioner herein. The Writ Petition is directed against the Award passed by the 1st respondent, the Andhra Pradesh Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council, Hyderabad on 05.10.2013 in the proceedings initiated before it by the 2nd respondent company. The 2nd respondent company is a smallscale industry. It has filed a claim petition before the 1st respondent initially seeking Rs.47,24,823/. It is the case of the 2nd respondent that pursuant to the eprocurement for work, supply, delivery, installation and commissioning of stand alone water purification systems at various government schools in rural areas, its bid was accepted and the necessary agreement for execution of the work in five districts has been entered into by and between the parties on 26.02.2010. It is the case of the 2nd respondent that in spite of the execution of the works, it has not been paid for the works so turned out. It is therefore, claimed by the 2nd respondent that an amount of Rs.33,29,881/ was, in fact, due and payable by the petitioner herein and since there was an inordinate delay in settling the payments, interest of Rs. 13,94,942/ was also claimed thereon, thus totalling to Rs.47,24,823/. The 1st respondent has been established by the State Government, in exercise of the power available under Section 20 read with Section 21 of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (henceforth referred to as the Act). The Parliament has noticed that smallscale industry is facing lots of difficulties to stay put in the competitive industrial environment and for it to flourish, settlement of its disputes and dues must be attended to on priority basis, so that the smallscale industrial entrepreneurs can be developed duly enhancing their competitiveness with rest of the entrepreneurs. Chapter IV of this Act provided for various measures for promotion, development and enhancement of competitiveness of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. Chapter V dealt with the delayed payments to Micro and Small Enterprises. Section 15 of the Act has thrust that where any supplier supplies any goods, or renders any services to any buyer, the buyer shall make payment therefor on or before the date agreed upon between him and the supplier in writing or where there is no agreement in this behalf, before the appointed date, provided that in no case the period agreed upon between the supplier and the buyer in writing shall exceed fortyfive days from the day of acceptance or the day of the deemed acceptance. The expression appointed day has been defined in Section 2(b) of the Act as the day following immediately after the expiry of the period of 15 days from the day of acceptance or the day of deemed acceptance of any goods or any services by a buyer from a supplier. It was explained therein that the day of acceptance means the day of the actual delivery of goods or rendering of services. Thus, Section 15 of the Act has attempted at a tight timeframe limit within which the payments are required to be made to smallscale entrepreneurs. Section 16 has thrust a further liability on the defaulting party making him liable to pay compound interest with monthly rests at three times of the bank rate notified by the Reserve Bank of India. Under Section 18, notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, any party to a dispute may make a reference to the Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council for recovery of the monies due. Section 20 of the Act required the State Government to establish one or more Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Councils and Section 21 of the Act dealt with the composition of such a Council. The Director of Industries in the Department of the State Government having administrative control over small scale industries is made the Chairperson of the Facilitation Council. The 2nd respondent herein has made a reference under Section 18 of the Act for recovery of the aforementioned sum of Rs.47,24,823/. It appears, it has filed