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Issues: (i) Whether a writ petition for enforcement of payment under a non-statutory contract against an entity amenable to Article 226 of the Constitution of India was maintainable in the absence of exceptional circumstances; (ii) Whether the unexplained delay in approaching the writ court, in the face of a disputed money claim arising from the contract, disentitled the writ petitioners to relief.
Issue (i): Whether a writ petition for enforcement of payment under a non-statutory contract against an entity amenable to Article 226 of the Constitution of India was maintainable in the absence of exceptional circumstances.
Analysis: The contract was held to be non-statutory and therefore governed by its own terms. The Court accepted that writ jurisdiction may, in appropriate cases, be invoked for contractual claims against a public body, but only where the action or inaction is per se arbitrary and the claim falls within exceptional circumstances. It was also noted that a party seeking payment under a contract may approach the writ court, but not where there is a serious and genuine dispute regarding liability, especially when the dispute lies within the private realm and the aggrieved party can pursue the ordinary civil adjudicatory process.
Conclusion: The writ petitions were not maintainable, and the finding on maintainability was against the writ petitioners.
Issue (ii): Whether the unexplained delay in approaching the writ court, in the face of a disputed money claim arising from the contract, disentitled the writ petitioners to relief.
Analysis: The completion certificate and final bill were long antecedent to the filing of the writ petitions. The Court held that, in money claims arising from contractual obligations, the period prescribed for a civil suit is a relevant measure of reasonable time for invoking writ jurisdiction. Since the petitioners approached the writ court after an inordinate and unexplained delay, and the claim was not an admitted one because objections had been raised and the file returned, the Court found that the dispute as to liability was genuine and substantial. The delay and laches, coupled with the existence of an ordinary civil remedy, weighed against discretionary interference under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
Conclusion: The delay and the disputed nature of the claim disentitled the writ petitioners to discretionary relief.
Final Conclusion: The impugned judgment was liable to be interfered with because the writ petitions could not be used to bypass the ordinary civil process in a contested contractual money claim, particularly after unexplained delay.
Ratio Decidendi: A writ court may entertain a contractual money claim against a body amenable to Article 226 only in exceptional circumstances where arbitrariness is shown and liability is not genuinely disputed; unexplained delay in seeking such relief may justify refusal of discretionary writ relief.
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