A row between an Indian government contractor and Foster + Partners over supposedly unpaid design fees related to the abandoned Amaravati master plan has reached the country’s Supreme Court after the London-based studio entered a lawsuit there last week.

The UK Architects’ Journal is reporting that the suit was brought against the state-run Amaravati Metropolitan Region Development Authority (AMRDA) over their repeated inability to respond to payment requests from Foster + Partners that date to 2019. 

Foster + Partners had worked alongside AMRDA for a period of several years to develop an administrative city for the state of Andhra Pradesh that included a new legislative building, judicial facilities, and a complex of office buildings at a reported price of £500 million ($600 million USD).

The effort was called off in 2019 (shortly before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the unrelated national parliament redesign in Delhi) following a sweep in local elections by the YSR Congress Party, which insisted on a trifurcated, now-withdrawn plan with various governmental functions being spread across separate sites.

As AJ reported, more than 26,000 local farmers had to be displaced in order to make way for the plan, the foundation stone of which was personally laid down by Modi himself two years prior to the selection of Foster + Partners to the project. The court instructed AMRDA to respond to the request. A later hearing will be held after a replacement for Chief Justice N.V. Ramana is appointed following his retirement on August 26th.