In Brief
National Building Construction, a partnership firm, contracted to build the Nishanghat Minor Irrigation Tank for Maharashtra. After completion, it claimed Rs. 1,76,199 for extra stone pitching work and Rs. 80,000 for water transport, arguing the government rate schedules contained errors. The High Court rejected both claims: the pitching rate was misprinted in square metres (not cubic metres), but when corrected reflected a logical pattern across years; the contract expressly included watering costs with no separate payment. The Supreme Court upheld the High Court, holding that correcting a typographical error is not retrospective modification, and a party cannot exploit manifest errors it would never have accepted at face value."
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