Page 1 of 15 REPORTABLE IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION APPEAL NO.1991 OF 2019 NATIONAL PROJECTS CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION LIMITED…APPELLANT VERSUS ROYAL CONSTRUCTION COMPANY PRIVATE LTD. PAYMENTS AND ADVANCES: All amounts and schedule of prices as mentioned in the Agreement documents are in Iraqi Dinars and represent the total lump sum amount payable to the Associate for various components of works. The NPCC shall give advance, towards the construction of residential accommodation including field office, store at the site of work, towards cost of transport vehicles (1 mini – bus, 1 land Rover and Jeep, 2 Mobile lighting units garage tools and equipment). 32.3 Payment Adjustment: Any due payment under the Agreement to be made by the Associate or to him contrary to the work completed shall be added or deducted from the payment certificate issued by the Contractor. 32.4 Deduction from payment due to the Associates: All payments due by the Associate to the Contractor under this Agreement shall be deducted from any other payments due to the Associate, and if the event of no such dues, the Contractor shall recover the same against the performance bond furnished by the Associate.
32.9 Refund of Retention Money after Maintenance Period: Necessary or desirable and for that purpose, shall have power to order the Associate to do and -the Associate shall do any or all of the following: – a) Increase or decrease the quantity of any work’ included in the Agreement b) Quit any such work. Following is the operative portion of the award: “After setting off the allowed counter claims of the respondent against the allowed claims of the claimant, I thus make the award as follows: – (a) The respondent shall pay ID 223777.14 (two lakh twenty-three thousand seven hundred seventy-seven and point one four) to the claimant along with 12% interest p.a. Further, the appeal filed under section 37 of the 1996 Act was disposed of, vide judgment dated 19.05.2014 wherein the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court firstly, reduced the rate of interest from 12 % p.a.
It would be beneficial to reproduce the last two paragraphs of the judgment of this Court: “The issue that arises for consideration is whether the High Court should have fixed the date of conversion contrary to the agreement and contrary to the award which is in consonance with the agreement and further reduced the rate of interest. The High Court would not have passed such an order terming it as “mid-way approach”. By the impugned order dated 17.12.2019, the Division Bench had allowed the appeal, set aside the order passed by the Single Judge and had referred the question of law to this Court.
We have gone through the contents of the agreement, the award and the order passed by this Court on 24.02.2015 allowing the appeal of the NPCCL and issuing directions. Paragraph 32.6 of the agreement states that payments against monthly account bills shall be made in Iraqi Dinars and US Dollars out of which 35 percent would be in Iraqi Dinars and 65 percent would be in US Dollars. The operative portion of the award contains three directions: a) The present appellant NPCCL shall pay Iraqi Dinars of 2,23,777.14 to the respondent RCCPL along with the interest at the rate of 12 percent per annum from the date of commencement of CIVIL APPEAL NO.001991 OF 2019 ETC.
