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M/s Hi-Tech Geosynthetics Pvt. Ltd. vs. M/s Shubh Construction Co.

Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:7960Decided 17 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
RFA 912/2026CNR: DLHC010403722026
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna

Background

A company that builds reinforced earth walls (RE Walls) for road projects sued a construction contractor for about Rs. 7.58 lakh, claiming it was owed money for work done on a UP highway bridge project, plus expenses for idle labour, supplied materials, and penalties it says it incurred because of the contractor's defaults. The trial court dismissed the suit, finding the company had not adequately proved the extent of work it actually completed or the amount it was owed.

Decision Breakdown

The High Court largely agreed with the trial court's dismissal. While it found the trial court wrong to reject the company's explanation for project delays outright (since both parties had, in fact, continued working together well past the 40-day deadline without treating it as ending the contract), the core problem remained: the company's key evidence, its Daily Progress Reports, were unsigned by the contractor or any government official, and were only produced years later after being "found" inside old steel moulds at another site. Without a properly verified account of work done, and without documents substantiating the specific expense claims (drainage filter costs, transport penalties, and so on), the company failed to prove it was owed the claimed amount. The appeal was dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

In a commercial dispute, informal record-keeping is not enough: a business must maintain and preserve contemporaneous, verifiable, countersigned records of work performed and expenses incurred if it wants a court to enforce payment years later.

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