CONTENTS - Central Public Works Department

SECTION 35
(5) In all court cases concerning the Department which the Executive Engineers have to defend with
the assistance of Government Advocates/Counsels, the Executive Engineers concerned should
intimate the complete postal address and telephone numbers (both offices and residence) to the
Advocates/Counsels, so that any information/developments relating to the case is intimated to
them straight away without referring the matter through the Secretary of the Ministry or any other
higher ranking officer.
35.20 Judgment in Court cases
(1) The progress of the cases in the Court should be watched by the Executive Engineer who is in
charge of the cases as well as by the Office of the Chief Engineer concerned on the basis of the
monthly reports. It shall be the responsibility of the Executive Engineer to send a report to the
Chief Engineer direct within 48 hours after the court has delivered a judgment that is adverse to
the Government with copies to the Superintending Engineer and the Ministry for information.
(2) It shall also be his responsibility to apply for and furnish with minimum delay a copy of the judgment
and all other relevant papers, his own comments and the opinion of the Counsel conducting the
case, on the advisability of filing an appeal/revision petition to enable the Government to come to
a decision whether an appeal/revision should be filed or not. There should be no delay in
communication between the Executive Engineer and the local Counsel and personal contact by
telephone, etc. should be maintained with him.
(3) On receipt of the relevant papers from the Executive Engineer, the Superintending Engineer should
send his own comments to the Chief Engineer. The Chief Engineer should examine the matter on
receipt of the Executive Engineer’s report, and should consider the advisability of the filing an
appeal/revision petition in the light of the comments of the Superintending Engineer. Thereafter,
the Chief Engineer should forward his proposals to the Ministry to enable them to seek the advice
of the Ministry of Law.
(4) The proposal should be made well in advance of the last date of filing an appeal, and it should be
complete in every respect, i.e. copy of the judgment (if such copy has not been received, a verbatim
report of the same), and all other relevant papers should accompany the proposal.
(5) It is essential that there is co-ordination between the different sections of the Directorate General
of Works and Chief Engineer’s Office in such matters, i.e. the Section concerned should
communicate to the other Sections wherever any important decision of general interest is taken
on a contractor’s claim.
(6) In all cases where the officers of the Central PWD are required to give instructions to the
Government pleaders in connection with court cases, they should give complete written instructions
in regard to each case. The Executive Engineers and Superintending Engineers should also see
that there is no avoidable delay in the issue of the instructions to the Government pleader. In any
case the instructions must be communicated at least a day before the date of hearing.
35.21 Law charges on civil suits
(1) The costs and expenses incurred on civil suits in connection with the execution of Government
works may be divided into three categories given below:
(i) The amount of the claim for which a decree is given.
(ii) The amount of incidental costs incurred by the executing department in connection with a
work financed from its own departmental heads of expenditure, e.g. when the PWD carried out
a work chargeable to the Public Works Heads of Expenditure, and
(iii) The amount of incidental costs incurred by the executing department in connection with a
work financed from a different head of expenditure, for instance when the Public Works
Department executes a work, the cost of which is debitable to the head of account other than
the Public Works Expenditure e.g. Civil Aviation, Defence etc.
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