New Delhi: The Delhi high court has taken the municipal corporations to task for indefinitely delaying the settling of bills of contractors for civil works, terming it “wholly arbitrary” and “unfathomable”. “To ask the contractor to wait endlessly for his payment is wholly arbitrary. The corporation which hands over the works contract to the contractor cannot say ‘do the work now, I will pay when I have the money’,” Justice Pratibha M Singh said, adding that the tenders or work orders must be issued on the pre-condition that funds are available.
“It is unfathomable as to how the corporation can postpone the payment to the contractor indefinitely,” the court said, adding that the “delay in payments compromises on availability of quality civil work for the corporations, who take care of the basic amenities for citizens such as roads, pavements, civil works, sewerage lines etc.” The observations by the court came on a batch of appeals by the North and East Delhi Municipal Corporations.
