What to Do When a Lime Consignment or Payment Is Disputed

Lime is a bulk material sold by weight against a specification, carried by road and paid for by transfer. Each of those four things can go wrong, and when one does, both sides reach for the phone. This article is about what to reach for instead: the documents, a clear head about whether this is a dispute or a fraud, and the right route for each.

It is written for buyers and, in fairness, for sellers too; the same paper settles both sides. It is general guidance from a manufacturer, not legal advice. For a contract, a dishonoured cheque or a recovery suit, take advice from a lawyer.

First: is it a dispute, or a fraud?

The distinction decides everything that follows.

A dispute is a disagreement between two real firms about a real transaction: the weight, the quality, the price, the date, the terms. It is settled by establishing the facts on the documents and applying what was agreed. Both parties answer their phones.

A fraud is deception for gain: a payment steered to an account that was never the seller's; material that was never going to be dispatched; a seller trading under another firm's name. Its signature is that the other side stops answering, or answers only with pressure. It is not settled on the documents; it is reported to the bank and the police, today.

If you are not sure which you have, treat it as a dispute for the next hour — the steps below cost nothing — and as a fraud the moment the other side goes silent or asks for more money to "release" what you have already paid.

Step 1: Fix the facts on paper

Before any conversation, put the documents in one place:

• the quotation and any proforma, with what was agreed on product, grade, quantity, rate basis, packing, delivery and payment;
• the tax invoice, e-way bill and transporter's consignment note;
• the weighbridge slips at loading and at your gate;
• the certificate of analysis for the lot, and your own laboratory's results on the retained sample, with the methods used;
• the payment references and the beneficiary details your bank shows;
• the chats and e-mails, exported with dates.

Write a one-page timeline: what was agreed, what was dispatched, what arrived, what was paid, what was said and when. Most disputes become obvious at this stage, to both sides.

Step 2: Work the common cases on the documents

Short weight

Compare the loading weighbridge slip, the e-way bill quantity and your gate weighbridge. Lime loses a little weight in transit through dust, and jumbo bags are filled to a nominal weight, so a small difference is normal; a large one is not. The vehicle's tare, the bridge's calibration and the time between weighings all matter. Agree in advance, on the order, whose bridge governs; if it is not agreed, the two slips and a reasonable tolerance are the basis for a settlement.

Off-specification material

Compare the certificate of analysis with the specification on the order, parameter by parameter, and check that the test methods match. If your laboratory disagrees with the certificate, the retained sample — drawn and sealed at loading, with a portion kept by each side — is what a retest is run on. A result from a sample scooped off the stockpile a week later, after the material has taken up moisture, is not evidence of what was dispatched. The certificate of analysis article explains each parameter.

Late or non-delivery

Check the dispatch date on the invoice and e-way bill against the transporter's consignment note. A truck that was dispatched and delayed is a transport problem with a vehicle number and a driver; a consignment with an invoice but no e-way bill and no consignment note may never have moved. Ask the seller for the vehicle number and the transporter's name; a real dispatch has both.

Disputed invoice or payment

Match the invoice to the quotation and the order: rate, quantity, GST, freight, packing. Match the payments to the invoices by reference. Differences of arithmetic are fixed by a credit or debit note; differences of agreement are negotiated. A seller who is a micro or small enterprise with Udyam registration has, under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, a statutory route for delayed payment through the State's MSE Facilitation Council; the Ministry's Samadhaan page and ODR portal explain who may apply.

Step 3: Give written notice

One letter or e-mail, dated, to the address on the quotation, stating what was agreed, what happened, what you have, and what you require — a replacement, a credit, a payment, a collection. Keep the tone plain and the facts referenced to the documents. Keep a copy and proof of sending. This is the step that separates a dispute from a fraud: a real firm answers in writing. It is also the step every later route, from a facilitation council to a court, will ask whether you took.

Step 4: Use the official route for the case you have

• Fraud, money already moved: your bank first, to raise a recall or hold on the beneficiary account; then the national cyber crime reporting portal or helpline 1930, run by the Ministry of Home Affairs' Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, which can lead to funds being frozen in the receiving account; then the police station with jurisdiction, with the documents from step 1. The buyer support page has the links, each verified against an official source.
• A debt owed to a micro or small enterprise: the MSE Facilitation Council route under the MSMED Act, applied for through the MSME ODR portal, for a supplier with a valid Udyam registration.
• A dishonoured cheque: the Negotiable Instruments Act provides a specific procedure with strict time limits for the notice and the complaint; this is a case for a lawyer promptly, not later.
• A contract dispute between two real firms: negotiation on the documents; then whatever the order provides — arbitration if there is an arbitration clause, otherwise the civil court with jurisdiction. A written order with a dispute clause, agreed at the start, makes this step far cheaper.

What not to do

Do not send a second payment to release a first. Do not delete or edit the chat. Do not accept a "settlement" that requires a transfer to a new account. Do not post an accusation naming a firm or a person on a public platform: it does not recover anything and it can create a problem of its own. Do not let a dispute run for months without a written notice; the paper gets colder and the money gets further away.

How Deshwali Minerals handles its own consignments

Every lot leaves Borunda with a certificate of analysis, a tax invoice, an e-way bill and a weighbridge slip, and the quotation it was ordered against carries a DM-Q reference. A retained sample is kept for the lot. If a consignment from us is disputed, the sales desk works from those documents, and a buyer who writes to us with the references gets an answer on the documents, not on the phone. If the consignment was not from us but our name was used, tell us through the buyer support page; we will confirm what was and was not ours.

Sources

• Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs — national cyber crime reporting portal and helpline 1930: cybercrime.gov.in and Press Information Bureau on I4C
• Ministry of MSME — MSME Samadhaan, delayed payments to micro and small enterprises under the MSMED Act, 2006: samadhaan.msme.gov.in and the MSME ODR portal
• Reserve Bank of India — Complaint Management System, for a complaint against a bank after the bank has had the chance to resolve it: cms.rbi.org.in
• Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (dishonour of cheques): India Code