Mandamus lies to compel payment of admitted contractual liabilities for vehicle hire charges by State authorities.

The Petitioner, owner of a Tata Sumo Gold (Registration No. AS-02/U-6082), provided his vehicle on hire to the Office of the Superintendent of Police, Hojai, starting in May 2019.

The vehicle continued in service until February 2025, during which the Petitioner accrued hire charges totaling Rs. 23,60,675/-.

Despite submitting various representations, only a partial payment of Rs. 2,28,000/- was released.

The Petitioner approached the Gauhati High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution seeking a direction for the release of the outstanding dues.

1. Whether the Respondent Authorities are liable to pay the outstanding balance of hire charges for the Petitioner's vehicle as per their own internal assessment and admissions.

The court exercised its extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India to address the inaction of state authorities in fulfilling admitted contractual liabilities.

It relied on the principle of "admitted liability," where the State, having acknowledged a specific debt in its internal instructions—specifically a communication from the Senior Superintendent of Police—is obligated to discharge that debt within a reasonable timeframe.

The Court's reasoning was primarily based on a written instruction dated 13.05.2026 submitted by the Senior Superintendent of Police, Hojai.

This document, marked as Exhibit “X,” explicitly admitted that the total liability for the vehicle was Rs. 25,31,476/-, of which only Rs. 3,45,824/- had been paid, leaving an outstanding balance of Rs. 21,85,652/-.

The Court noted that the hire charge bills had already been forwarded to the Assam Police Headquarters (APHQ) for sanction.

Since the Respondents did not dispute the debt and had already initiated the administrative process for payment, the Court found no legal impediment to directing the formal release of the admitted funds.

The Court ordered that this payment exercise be completed within six months from the date of service of the judgment on the Director General of Police, Guwahati and directed that any payments made during the pendency of the proceedings must be set off against the final disbursal.