1 2025:CGHC:43150-DB NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR WPC No. 4567 of 2025 M/s. Danteshwari Drilling Company Akashwani Road Near Axis Bank Nayapara Jagdalpur, Through Its Propritor Aman Jari S/o Late Shri Lalit Kumar Jari, Aged About 47 Years R/o Near Axis Bank Nayapara Jagdalpur, District- Jagdalpur (C.G.) ... Petitioner versus 1 - State of Chhattisgarh Through Secretary, Water Resources Department Mahanadi Bhawan, Capital Complex, Mantralaya, Atal Nagar Naya Raipur, District- Raipur (C.G.) 2 - Secretary Tribal Welfare And Developement Department, Mantralaya, Mahanadi Bhawan, Nawa Raipur Atal Nagar, Raipur District - Raipur (C.G.) 3 - Commissioner (Tribal Welfare), Jagdalpur District - Bastar (C.G.) 4 - Collector Dantewada (Tribal Welfare Branch) , District - South Bastar Dantewada (C.G.) 5 - Assistant Commissioner (Tribal Welfare) Dantewada District- South Bastar Dantewada (C.G.) ... Respondents For Petitioner : Mr. Sunil Sahu, Advocate For Respondents/State : Mr. Prafull N. Bharat, Advocate General with Mr. Sangharsh Pandey, G.A. Hon’ble Shri Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice Hon’ble Shri Bibhu Datta Guru, Judge Judgment on Board Per Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice AMARDEEP CHOUBEY Digitally signed by AMARDEEP CHOUBEY Date: 2025.08.26 18:18:37 +0530 2 26/08/2025 1. The present writ petition has been filled for following reliefs:- “10.1 That this Hon'ble court may kindly be please to issue an appropriate writ by Commanding & directing the respondents authorities to release the undisputed amount of the petitioner for which the work is completed. 10.2 That this Hon'ble court may kindly be please to issue an appropriate writ by commanding and directing the respondents to consider and decide the representation of petitioner forthwith which relates to payment of undisputed amount. 10.3 Any other relief, which may be suitable in the facts and circumstances of the case, may also be granted.” 2. Learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner was issued a work order dated 05.10.2023 for drilling and installing Diacasing pipes in collapsible strata from ground level to hard rock (300 ft. each) for 418 bore wells sanctioned in the names of various agriculturists in Dantewada, Kuakonda, and Katekalyan blocks of District Dantewada. The petitioner duly executed the work as per the terms of the work order and submitted the bills for 416 agriculturists, amounting Rs.8,72,97,600/-, along with completion certificates, photographs, and agriculturist’s satisfaction certificates. Upon verification, the respondents 3 released a payment of Rs.7,39,58,650/-, leaving a balance amount of Rs.1,16,58,650/- unpaid without assigning any reason. Despite repeated written representations dated 14.02.2025, 17.03.2025, 17.04.2025, 13.05.2025, 05.06.2025, and 23.06.2025 to the Assistant Commissioner, Collector, and Chairman of Bastar Tribal Development Authority, no action has been taken till date to release the remaining amount. He further submits that the respondents have already admitted that the completion of work and sanctioned a substantial part of the payment i.e. Rs.7,39,58,650/- after due verification, which shows that there is no dispute about the execution and quality of the work, therefore retention of the balance amount is wholly unjustified. 3. On the other hand, learned counsel appearing for the respondents opposes the submissions made by learned counsel for the petitioner and submits that the petitioner has an alternative efficacious remedy under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act. As such, the present writ petition as framed and filed is not maintainable. 4. We have learned counsel for the parties, perused the impugned order and other documents appended with writ petition. 4 5. It is settled law that the High Court should not exercise its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India when it raises disputed question of facts. 6. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Chairman, Grid Corpornation of Orissa Ltd. (GRIDCO) and others v. Sukamani Das (Smt.) and another, (1999) 7 SCC 298 was dealing with the question of whether the High Court had made an error in entertaining a writ petition filed seeking compensation for the death of a person due to electrocution, which had allegedly been caused due to the negligence of the authorities. The Supreme Court in the said case observed as under: "6. In our opinion, the High Court committed an error in entertaining the writ petitions even though they were not fit cases for exercising power under Article 226 of the Constitution. The High Court went wrong in proceeding on the basis that as the deaths had taken place because of electrocution as a result of the deceased coming into contact with snapped live wires of the electric transmission lines of the appellants, that "admittedly/prima facie amounted to negligence on the part of the appellants". The High Court failed to appreciate that all these cases were actions in tort and negligence was required to be established 5 firstly by the claimants. The mere fact that the wire of the electric transmission line belonging to Appellant 1 had snapped and the deceased had come in contact with it and had died was not by itself sufficient for awarding compensation. It also required to be examined whether the wire had snapped as a result of any negligence of the appellants and under which circumstances the deceased had come in contact with the wire. In view of the specific defences raised by the appellants in each of these cases they deserved an opportunity to prove that proper care and precautions were taken in maintaining the transmission lines and yet the wires had snapped because of circumstances beyond their control or unauthorised intervention of third parties or that the deceased had not died in the manner stated by the petitioners. These questions could not have been decided properly on the basis of affidavits only. It is the settled legal position that where disputed questions of facts are involved a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution is not a proper remedy. The High Court has not and could not have held that the disputes in these cases were raised for the sake of raising them and that there was no substance therein. The High Court should have directed the writ petitioners to approach the civil court as it was done in OJC No. 5229 of 1995." 6 (emphasis supplied) 7. The aforesaid judgment has been relied/ reiterated by the Supreme Court in S.P.S. Rathore v. State of Haryana and others, (2005) 10 SCC 1 wherein it observed as follows: "16. In Chairman, Grid Corpn. of Orissa Ltd. (Gridco) v. Sukamani Das [(1999) 7 SCC 298] the question which arose for consideration was, can the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution award compensation for death caused due to electrocution on account of negligence, when the liability was emphatically denied on the ground that the death had not occurred as a result of negligence, but because of an act of God or of acts of some other persons. The Court held that it is the settled legal position that where disputed questions of facts are involved, a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution is not a proper remedy. Therefore, questions as to whether death occurred due to negligence or due to act of God or of some third person could not be decided properly on the basis of affidavits only, but should be decided by the civil court after appreciating the evidence adduced by the parties. In T.N. Electricity Board v. Sumathi [(2000) 4 SCC 543] it was held that when a disputed question of fact arises and there is clear denial of any tortious liability, remedy under Article 226 of the Constitution may not be proper. The Court carved out exception to 7 this general rule by observing that, it should not be understood that in every case of tortious liability, recourse must be had to a suit. When there is negligence on the face of it and infringement of Article 21 is there, it cannot be said that there will be any bar to proceed under Article 226 of the Constitution." (emphasis supplied) 8. Similarly, the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Shubhas Jain v. Rajeshwari Shivam, 2021 SCC OnLine SC 562 has held as under: "26. It is well settled that the High Court exercising its extraordinary writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, does not adjudicate hotly disputed questions of facts. It is not for the High Court to make a comparative assessment of conflicting technical reports and decide which one is acceptable." 9. Subsequently, in Union of India Vs. Puna Hinda, (2021) 10 SCC 690, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has observed: "24. Therefore, the dispute could not be raised by way of a writ petition on the disputed questions of fact. Though, the jurisdiction of the High Court is wide but in respect of pure contractual matters in the field of private law, having no statutory flavour, are better adjudicated upon by the forum agreed to by the parties. The dispute as to whether the amount is payable or not and/or how much amount is 8 payable are disputed questions of facts. There is no admission on the part of the appellants to infer that the amount stands crystallised. Therefore, in the absence of any acceptance of joint survey report by the competent authority, no right would accrue to the writ petitioner only because measurements cannot be undertaken after passage of time. Maybe, the resurvey cannot take place but the measurement books of the work executed from time to time would form a reasonable basis for assessing the amount due and payable to the writ petitioner, but such process could be undertaken only by the agreed forum i.e. arbitration and not by the writ court as it does not have the expertise in respect of measurements or construction of roads." 10.Recently, the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of M.P. Power Management Co. Ltd. v. Sky Power Southeast Solar India (P) Ltd., (2023) 2 SCC 703, while dealing with the issue of exercise of writ jurisdiction by a Court in matters arising out of a contract, has stated: "82.7. The existence of an alternate remedy, is, undoubtedly, a matter to be borne in mind in declining relief in a writ petition in a contractual matter. Again, the question as to whether the writ petitioner must be told off the gates, would depend upon the nature of the claim and relief sought by the petitioner, the questions, which 9 would have to be decided, and, most importantly, whether there are disputed questions of fact, resolution of which is necessary, as an indispensable prelude to the grant of the relief sought. Undoubtedly, while there is no prohibition, in the writ court even deciding disputed questions of fact, particularly when the dispute surrounds demystifying of documents only, the Court may relegate the party to the remedy by way of a civil suit." (emphasis supplied) 11.A reading of the aforesaid judgments makes it clear that it is well settled proposition of law that when there are disputed question of facts involved in a case, the High Court should not exercise its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. It has been held that the remedy under Article 226 of the Constitution of India may not be proper. 12.From perusal of the pleadings, it appears that the petitioner has prayed for issuance of direction to the respondents to release the undisputed amount of the petitioner for which the work is completed and also seeking direction to decide the representations of the petitioners. 13.In the instant case, the relief of issuance of direction to the respondents for releasing the undisputed amount of the 10 petitioner and to decide the representations, the petitioner is contingent upon the resolution of the disputed question of facts raised, and these questions cannot be adjudicated under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. In view of the aforesaid, it would not be appropriate for this Court to entertain the instant writ petition as there are disputed questions of fact involved. 14.Considering the submissions advanced by learned counsel for the parties, further considering the disputed questions of facts involved in this writ petition, the relief sought by the petitioner and in view of law laid down by the Supreme Court in the above-stated judgments (supra), we do not find any good ground to entertain this writ petition. 15.Accordingly, the writ petition being devoid of merit is liable to be and is hereby dismissed. However, liberty is reserved in favour of the petitioner to take recourse to other alternate remedies available to him under the law. No cost(s). Sd/- Sd/- SD/- SD/- (Bibhu Datta Guru) (Ramesh Sinha) Judge Chief Justice Amardeep