Kerala High Court on Wednesday held that it’s the duty of the state to protect the interest of its Citizens. In its Judgement Justice Shaji P Chaly held that State cannot avoid its obligation to compensate a contractor for dues owed to him by invoking the ground of limitation.

The Court observed that the scheme of part III of the Constitution of India deals with ‘fundamental rights’ speaks eloquently of the responsibilities of the State to safeguard the well-being and prosperity of the citizens without fail. Therefore, when a citizen was engaged by the Government to carry out one of its activities, it had every duty to reward the person as agreed upon in the contract, even without asking for it.

In this matter, Karnataka Government ordered the petitioner’s father to construct a protection wall on the banks of Karnataka River. However, the authorities tried to pay its dues to a previous contractor by adjusting it against the liabilities against the petitioner’s father.

Therefore, the Petitioners father filed an appeal in the Court in which the Court has granted permanent injunction and prevented the State Government to from deducting any money owed to the previous contractor from the amount owed to the petitioners' father for the contract executed between the government and the petitioner’s father.

During the Court trials, Adv. Deepa Narayanan, the Counsel member of the State admitted that the recovery of the money is barred by limitation. The court in this regard, observed that the period of limitation for a claim for recovery of money from a private person is three years. However, under Article 112 of the Limitation Act, 1963, this period extends to thirty years for claims made by the government.

After hearing the full arguments, the Court held that States actions are totally illegal and cited that under Article 300A of the Constitution - no person can be deprived of his/her property save by authority of law.

Once the contract work was satisfactorily completed, and the money owed to the petitioners' father became due to them, it cannot be used to settle outstanding dues of a previous contractor for some other work.