1 2026:CGHC:275-DB NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR WPC No. 6206 of 2025 Deepak Kumar Singhania S/o Ramprasad Singhaniya Aged About 50 Years At- Sadar Bazar Champa, District : Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh ... Petitioner(s) versus 1 - State Of Chhattisgarh Through District Collector, District : Janjgir- Champa, Chhattisgarh 2 - Executive Engineer R.E.S. (Rural Engineering Service) Division Janjgir, District : Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh 3 - Sub-Divisional Officer Rural Engineering Service, Baloda Sub Division, District : Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh ... Respondent(s) For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Akash Mishra, Advocate For Respondent(s) : Mr. S.S. Baghel, G.A. Hon’ble Shri Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice Hon’ble Shri Arvind Kumar Verma, Judge Order on Board Per Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice 05/01/2026 1. Heard Mr. Akash Mishra, learned counsel for the petitioner. Also heard Mr. S.S. Baghel, learned Government Advocate, appearing MADHURIMA THAKUR Digitally signed by MADHURIMA THAKUR Date: 2026.01.05 16:54:55 +0530 2 for the State. 2. The present petition has been filed by the petitioner under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, seeking following reliefs: “10.1 That, the Court may kindly be pleased to pass appropriate writ(s)/order(s) and kindly direct Respondent no. 1 and Respondent no. 2 to make necessary arrangements and disburse the funds to the petitioner so that his outstanding dues amounting to Rs. 33,14,455/- may be cleared within a stipulated time frame, along with the general rate of bank interest as may be fixed by this Hon’ble Court. 10.2 That, the Cout may kindly be pleased to pass appropriate writ(s)/order(s) and direct the respondents to take necessary steps to streamline the way for clearance of the petitioner’s due and clear her dues within a time frame fixed by this Hon’ble Court. 10.4 Any other relief/direction that the Court may deem fit in the facts and circumstances of the case.” 3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is a 3 Class- D contractor at V.P. Sadar Bazar Champa, District- Janjgir- Champa (C.G.). Respondent no. 2 issued seven different work orders bearing no. 4738, 4740, 4744, 4742, 3427, 1910, 3429/SAC/RES/2023 to the petitioner for the construction of school classrooms at different locations and for making them semi-furnished with tiles, putty and paint. The petitioner successfully executed all the said work; however, the payment for work orders nos. 4738, 4740, 4744, 4742/SAC/2023 has not yet been made to him. The petitioner has duly and successfully executed and completed all the work as per the terms of the said work orders. While the respondents have released payments for three buildings, despite completion of the works and taking over of all the buildings, they have failed to disburse the balance payments for the remaining four buildings. It is pertinent to mention here that the respondent authorities have released only the first installment of the payment, while the remaining amounts are still pending. It is further submitted that respondents no. 1 and 2 have been repeatedly reminded and requested through several representations to allocate the requisite funds; however, they have remained inactive and have failed to take any steps in this regard. He further submits that since the completion of the work, a period of one year has elapsed, the respondents have not made the necessary disbursal of the payment to the petitioner. It is pertinent to mention here that, due to the bona fide mistake on the part of the petitioner and the engineer, the buildings have, in fact, been 4 developed in an improved and better condition than originally proposed. The total value of the executed works amounts to Rs. 41,82,725/- out of which the petitioner has received only Rs. 8,68,270/- and the remaining amount of Rs. 33,14,455/- is still outstanding. During the progress of the work, the Engineer and even Sub-Divisional Officer made routine visits to the construction site. They inspected the works of all the buildings without raising any objection and, in fact, provided their consent and suggestions regarding the designs of the tiles and the colors of paints. It is respectfully concluded that the concerned authorities have failed to release even the proposed amount of payment despite the completion of the work and the formal handover of the buildings. 4. On the other hand, learned Government Advocate opposes the submissions made by the learned counsel for the petitioner and submits that the writ petition as framed and filed are not maintainable as the disputed question of facts cannot be adjudicated in writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. 5. We have learned counsel for the parties, perused the impugned order and other documents appended with writ petitions. 6. 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. 7. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Chairman, Grid Corpornation of Orissa Ltd. (GRIDCO) & Others v. Sukamani 5 Das (Smt.) & Another, reported in (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 Hon’ble 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 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 6 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.” (emphasis supplied) 7 8. The aforesaid judgment has been relied/ reiterated by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in S.P.S. Rathore v. State of Haryana & Others, reported in (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 8 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 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) 9. Similarly, the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Shubhas Jain v. Rajeshwari Shivam, reported in 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.” 10. Subsequently, in Union of India vs. Puna Hinda, reported in (2021) 10 SCC 690, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has observed: 9 “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 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 11. Recently, the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of M.P. Power Management Co. Ltd. v. Sky Power Southeast Solar India (P) Ltd., reported in (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 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) 12. A reading of the aforesaid judgments makes it clear that it is well settled proposition of law that when there are disputed question of 11 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. 13. In the present cases, the relief of compensations sought by 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 present writ petitions 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 fact involved in this writ petition, the reliefs sought by the petitioner and in view of law laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the above- stated judgments (supra), we do not find any good ground to entertain these writ petitions. 15. Accordingly, the present writ petitions being devoid of merit are liable to be and are 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/- (Arvind Kumar Verma) (Ramesh Sinha) Judge Chief Justice Madhurima