Maheshwari and Co. represented National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited in the termination of the Contract Agreement (CA) for the construction of a 100-bed staff hostel at Diet Campus Leh, UT of Ladakh, due to breaches and omissions on the part of the contractor.

Pursuant to the termination of the CA, our Client invoked the Performance Bank Guarantee submitted by the Contractor at the time execution of the CA. The Contractor moved an application under Section 9 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996, before the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi, seeking the interim relief of a refund of the encashed Bank Guarantee as well as a declaration of termination as illegal. The Hon’ble Court was pleased to dispose off the said application by referring the parties to arbitration and leaving all the disputes to be decided by the Hon’ble Tribunal. Further, the Hon’ble Court directed the Arbitral Tribunal to treat the Section 9 application as an application under Section 17 of the Act.

Maheshwari & Co. was successful in getting the said application dismissed, and the Hon’ble Tribunal, while dismissing the application, held that prima facie, the termination by our Client was not illegal but was also due to the breaches and omissions on the part of the Contractor.

The contract agreement is estimated to be worth Rs 15 crores.

Maheshwari and Co.’s team was led by Partner- Dharmendra Verma and Senior Associate- Vishal Singh.