Rs 15L withheld, Himachal high court warns of financial emergency order
A bench, headed by Justice Ajay Mohan Goel, made the observations on Wednesday during the hearing of a petition filed by Shashi Thakur, a contractor of the public works department (PWD), Dharampur tehsil, Mandi district.
Thakur approached the high court seeking directions to the department officials to release his pending payment of Rs 13.88 lakh along with interest at 18% per annum from the date of submission of the bill in 2022 until the date of actual payment.
The high court initially issued a notice to the state govt on April 30 to file its reply, but it kept seeking more time. It was only when the court granted a last opportunity to the state govt that the department's Dharampur division executive engineer submitted his reply.
"Due to paucity of funds with the state of HP exchequer, the payment of Rs 15.16 lakh cannot be disbursed to the petitioner to date," reads the executive engineer's reply.
The official explained that during the financial year 2022-23, under the head of repair and maintenance, "tender amounting to Rs 2,376 lakh was awarded to various contractors against a budget provision amounting to Rs 357.96 lakh." He added that the petitioner contractor executed one work against this head of account.
Taken aback by the reasoning, Justice Goel observed, "Taking into consideration the instructions that have been imparted to the court by the office of the advocate general, the deputy advocate general is directed to have instructions as to why the appropriate observations should not be made by the court in light of the provisions of Article 360 of the Constitution on the next date."
The public works department's contractors' unions have been protesting from time-to-time since last year against the cash-strapped Himachal govt over the non-clearance of their payments running into crores.
BOX:
Article 360 of the Constitution
Article 360 allows the declaration of emergency if the financial stability of a state is threatened. "If the President is satisfied that a situation has arisen whereby the financial stability or credit of India or any part of the territory thereof is threatened, he may by a proclamation make a declaration to that effect," underlines Article 360.
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