M/s Krishna Murthy & Co. Through its Partner Mr. Karthikeyan Govindaswamy Branch Office: No. 52, G.F., Plot no. 13 Veer Savarkar Block Shakarpur, Delhi 110092 ........ Defendant Date of Institution : 12.10.2022 Date of Arguments: 30.05.2025, 14.07.2025 and 25.08.2025, 28.08.2025, 19.09.2025 & 10.10.2025 Date of Judgment : 18.10.2025 JUDGMENT 1. This is suit for recovery of Rs. 95,19,601/ (Rs. Ninety Five Lacs Nineteen Thousand Six Hundred and One) filed by plaintiff against the defendant on the facts that: CS (COMM) No. : 580/2022 1/25 (i) Plaintiff is engaged in business of engineering solutions, engineering contracts, construction etc. , whereas defendant is dealing in business of construction, civil work contract etc. (ii) Plaintiff got two work orders from defendant to carry out works of design, modification and construction, pipe shifting, laying of Pipe and back filling etc. vide work orders no. RKC/DJB/P3/089 amounting to Rs. 98,99,602/ and RKC/DJB13/Billing/143 amounting to Rs. 11,20,000/. The said works were assigned through two different work orders as subcontracts for the work of Delhi Jal Board and Engineering India Ltd. was the project management consultancy in the said project. (iii) Plaintiff initiated the work, in pursuance to the work orders and handed over the project site to the defendant up to its satisfaction. Work orders were carried out by plaintiff with utmost dedication and all the obligations under the said work orders were fulfilled. Thereafter, RA bills were raised which were never disputed by the defendant, however payment was not made by defendant to plaintiff except the advance/part payment of Rs. 15,00,000/. Several requests were made by plaintiff to defendant for payment of outstanding amount vide emails but of no avail. Legal demand notice dated 19.10.2021 sent to defendant also did not yield any result. 2. Plaintiff initiated "PreInstitution Mediation" proceedings and filed an application for Mediation before the competent authority under Rule 2 (c) of The Commercial Courts (Pre Institution) Mediation and Settlement Rules, 2018 wherein Non Starter Report dated 03.03.2022 was issued by the concerned authority and the plaintiff was constrained to file the instant suit. CS (COMM) No. : 580/2022 2/25 3. In written statement filed on behalf of defendant, it was stated that: (i) Plaintiff has failed to provide any evidence in support of his ill conceived claims. Plaintiff was awarded a work order for pipe shifting including excavation, laying of pipe and backfilling all complete and miscellaneous work of chipping, grouting of gates, plugging of 160 dia pie connector in outlet chamber vide work order no. RKC/DJB13/BILLING/143 amounting to Rs. 11,20,000. Work order no. RKC/DJB/P3/089 amounting to Rs. 98,99,602/ was never issued by the defendant to the plaintiff. Sister concern of the plaintiff M/s JNA Infratech LLP was awarded the same work vide a different work order and as such, it is inconceivable how two work orders for the same work can be granted to the same person. (ii) Plaintiff has failed to show the channel through which the impugned work order was received by him. Raising of RA bills dated 02.09.2019 for sum of Rs. 89,09,641/ and dated 20.11.2019 for sum of Rs. 9,89,960/ by plaintiff was denied and it was submitted that RA bills which have been relied upon by the plaintiff were never received by the defendant, which are not bearing any receiving signature/stamp of defendant nor any of the alleged bills placed on record have been certified, which exposes the true character of the same. (iii) Bill dated 20.11.2019 for sum of Rs. 11,20,000/ was received by the defendant which had already been cleared in full and final by making payment of Rs. 15,00,000/ wherein excess sum of Rs. 3,80,000/ was towards the extra items. Further, since the impugned work order was never issued to the plaintiff but to a sister concern of the plaintiff, hence, the claim for performance CS (COMM) No. : 580/2022 3/25 and completion of any works is ill found