New Delhi: The Patiala House Court on Thursday ordered the attachment of the iconic ‘Bikaner House’ run by the Himachal Pradesh government a day after the Himachal High Court issued a similar order against the Himachal Bhawan in Delhi.
The order comes after the alleged non-compliance with the mediation agreement between the municipal administration of Rajasthan and Enviro Infra Engineers Private Limited.
A bench headed by Commercial Court Judge Vidya Prakash said in his order that on January 21, 2020, after a dispute between Enviro Infra Engineers, the municipality was ordered to pay Rs 50,31,512 lakh, but despite this, it did not pay it to the company.
The court kept the next hearing in the case on November 29 and directed the municipal authority or its representative to be present.
On Wednesday, the Himachal Pradesh HC issued an order to confiscate Himachal Bhawan in Delhi as the Congress-led Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu government failed to pay electricity dues of about Rs 150 crore. It also directed the Principal Secretary of the Electricity Department to identify the officials responsible for the negligence.
The Himachal government has been ignoring the orders repeatedly. Earlier, the state government had received an order to return the advance amount of Rs 64 crore deposited by the company along with seven per cent interest. After the Himachal Pradesh government disobeyed this order of the court, the amount, including interest, has now reached Rs 150 crore. The next hearing in this case has been fixed for December 6.
The seizing order was passed by the HC order after a matter was raised in the context of the 400 MW Seli Hydro Project to be built on the Chenab River in Lahaul-Spiti. The court clarified that the money is going from the state Treasury, the loss of which will have to be borne by the public, so the company has been allowed to recover its money by auctioning Himachal Bhawan.
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High Court Orders Confiscation Of Himachal Bhawan In Delhi