The Embassy of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on Thursday sought a six-week adjournment from the Supreme Court in a contractual dispute case, citing the regime change in the country following the Taliban takeover.
“There is a regime change in Afghanistan and the entire country is in a state of turmoil and I am not able to get further instructions from the Ambassador and from the Embassy located in New Delhi. I will be requesting for an adjournment of six weeks,” said the letter, moved by embassy counsel advocate Ejaz Maqbool.
The bench of justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari, however, asked: “Do you think the situation will be resolved in six weeks?”
Maqbool replied, “We all pray that the situation improves soon… For now, let the matter be listed after six weeks.” The bench accepted the request and adjourned the case for six weeks.
The case is related to a contractual dispute between a Delhi-based private firm KLA Construction Technologies Private Limited and the embassy. The embassy signed a contract for its rehabilitation in November 2007 but disputes arose after the firm took over two years to complete only 40% of work, when the contract specified a timeline of 240 days.