When the MSME Samadhaan website doesn’t provide a solution (samadhaan) despite repeated and desperate cries for justice by small business enterprises, the only way left is to move courts. One such desperate application has come before the Delhi High Court, and Justice Rekha Palli on Tuesday issued notice to the Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council.
The plea is under Article 226 of the Constitution (power of High Courts to issue orders, directions, and writs) seeking directions to the Council to expeditiously dispose of any pending application on its website MSME Samadhaan within the statutory period of 90 days. The court will hear the matter next on August 25.
Petitioner NK Kapur and Company Pvt Ltd was aggrieved by the non-payment of its dues of around Rs 2 crore from the PHD Chamber and filed an application in February 2021, for delayed payment on the website of MSME Samadhaan-Delayed Payment Monitoring System.
However, even after many representations and visits to the MSME Facilitation Council, the petitioner didn’t get any satisfactory reply. Later, it was informed to the petitioner that due to the malfunctioning of the Samadhaan website and overburdening of applications, the Council was processing applications received in 2017-2018 only.
The petitioner company is a provider of event management services, demonstrations and displays for trade shows, events and exhibitions. It was appointed by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry as a contractor for the 4th Agri Leadership Summit, 2019 to be held at the India International Horticulture Market, Ganaur, Haryana from 15.02.2019-17.02.2019.
The petition stated that the total services rendered by the petitioner amounted to invoices of a total of Rs 3,54,50,000 and Rs 82,60,000. However, till date a total of Rs 2,00,42,238 is due to the company.
The petitioner also averred that on perusal of the statistics available on MSME Samadhaan website, it has found out that there are thousands of applications pending with the Council and they are practically defunct in their functioning.
The petition has been filed through Advocates Ankur Mahindro and Rohan Taneja (Kred-Jure, Advocates & Legal Consultants).