Disallowing the outstanding dues to a contractor may deprive the North Delhi Municipal Commissioner of his luxury car and all other office comforts. A city court has ordered attachment of the car and other articles in office of the NMC Commissioner and selling them at auction for realising a sum of `1.68 lakh to be paid to a registered contractor.
The court was irked over non-compliance of a previous order that was passed two years ago. Additional District Judge Ajay Goel passed the order after Rajesh Gupta, a registered Government contractor, approached the court seeking payment of `1.68 lakh for his work and informed it that the civic agency has not paid him despite a decree by another court in 2011.
Taking a strong note of the non-compliance, ADJ Goel remarked that the Government agency (NMC) was openly disobeying the court’s order that warranted a ‘stern action’ against the agency.
“The Government agency is openly disobeying the dictate of the decree and it is to be executed simultaneously against the Commissioner of North Delhi Municipal Corporation to the tune of Rs 1.68 lakh along with interest. The attachment of bank account has also yielded no result. Accordingly, the car as well as the articles in the office of Commissioner, NMC, Chandni Chowk/ Minto Road be attached and thereafter, amount be realised by selling them in auction,” the judge said.
Earlier, the court had ordered attachment of bank accounts of an executive engineer of the agency but the warrant was received back with a ‘strange report’ that only `57 is outstanding in the account. The contractor told the court that he was awarded the work of construction of 20 seats ‘Jan Suvidha’ complex in an area in northwest Delhi pursuant to tenders floated by then Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). He said for the work, only cement and steel was to be provided by the civic agency while he would ensure all other material as well as labourersa.
Gupta said he completed the work, though a bit late due to various hindrances such as the MCD not clearing the sites for work and objections from the residents of the area. However, when he furnished the bill, no payment was made, he said. He then initiated a suit for recovery which was decided in November 2011 and by which date the agency and also one of its executive engineers were directed to pay Gupta `65,000 along with interest till the time of payment. The agency, however, failed to obey the court’s order.