M/s Engineering Project India Ltd. (A Govt. of India Enterprise) (Through Its Directors) Northern Regional Office, 2nd floor, Core3, Scope Complex, 7Lodhi Road, New Delhi110003. ....Defendant Date of Institution: 01.12.2022 Date of Arguments: 05.04.2024 Date of Judgment : 16.04.2024 JUDGMENT 1. The present suit has been filed by the plaintiff company M/S Civicon Hi Tech Pvt. Ltd. against defendant M/s Engineering Project India Ltd. for recovery of sum of Rs.67,27,183/ alongwith pendente lite and future interest. 2. The brief facts of the matter as emerged from the plaint are that plaintiff company M/s Civicon Hi Tech Pvt.Ltd. is a company registered with Registrar of Companies, Jammu and also registered as an MSME and is engaged in business of construction activities (including alteration, addition, CS (Comm) 1163/2022 Bhupesh Kumar District Judge(Commercial)05, SE, Saket, New Delhi/16.04.2024 2 repair and maintenance) of buildings, carried out on ownaccount basis or on a fee or contract basis. It has been further submitted that defendant is a public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise (Department of Heavy Industry), Government of India and on 29.09.2018, the defendant company has floated a tender bearing no.NRO/CON/696/660, inviting the bids for balance work of supply, installation, testing and commissioning of, two no.11/0.433 kv Indoor electric substation (ess1 & 2); three no. Outdoor type 11/0.433 kv compact substation (css1,2 & 3); other associated external electrical works for the permanent campus of 'Central University of Jammu' ( hereinafter referred as CUJ) at village Bagla, District Samba, J&K. It has been further submitted that plaintiff company being successful bidder was awarded tender on 05.12.2018. The total value of the tender work was estimated Rs.5,36,32,755/, out of which plaintiff has received Rs.4,45,18,141/, so far. It has been further submitted that plaintiff after allotment of tender followed all the terms and conditions of tender and completed the physical work within stipulated period. It has been further submitted that plaintiff has sent letter dated 20.02.2020 alongwith list of inventories to defendant company and called upon the defendant to take the possession of complete project. It has been further submitted that despite completion of physical work, the project could not be commissioned as the 'CUJ' and defendant company has not provided 11 KV HT line to the plaintiff for testing of the installed equipments, which caused delay in commissioning of project. It has been further submitted that all the HT and LT equipments were already tested at the respective manufacturing facilities of respective suppliers under the due supervision of Technical representatives of defendant company from Delhi/Gurgaon. It has been further submitted that all injection testing was done for HT equipments at CS (Comm) 1163/2022 Bhupesh Kumar District Judge(Commercial)05, SE, Saket, New Delhi/16.04.2024 3 site and LT equipments were charged by DG set power available only as per recommendations of the building committee of 'CUJ'. The material and equipments were supplied and installed by plaintiff company only after issuance of 100% OK certificates by representatives of defendant company. It has been further submitted that defendant company has withhold the substantial portion of the amount due towards bills without any explanation or communication. It has been further submitted that lastly defendant company has cited the excuse that on account of nontesting of equipment, the outstanding dues of plaintiff could not be cleared. It has been further submitted that as per terms of agreement, the defendant was duty bound to release outstanding payment within 15 days of submission of bills. It has been further submitted that from very beginning, the defendant has delayed in release of payment on one account or another. The details of said bills and as under : 1st RA bill was cleared after delay of more