It’s an auction like no other. Part of the district collectorate in Bihar’s Madhubani, which houses top executive and law enforcement offices, is set to go under the hammer on November 26 because the district administration failed to pay Rs 4.17 crore in dues to a private company.The auction, which is likely to leave some red faces in the Bihar government, is set to proceed after a Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice Arvind Kumar and Justice Vipul M Pancholi dismissed the state’s Special Leave Petition (SLP) this month seeking a stay on court-ordered execution proceedings.After the top court refused to interfere, the District and Sessions Court of Madhubani issued an updated sale proclamation fixing November 26 as the date to auction approximately 10 kattha of prime land and a two-storey building in the southern portion of the Collectorate complex to recover unpaid dues of Rs 4.17 crore.Also Read | Meet Anita Jha: The Madhubani Lawyer Who Has Practised from Her Car for 13 YearsThe legal tussle dates back three decades to a failed public-private initiative in Madhubani’s Pandaul area.A senior official in the district administration told The Indian Express, “As the matter pertains to the industry department, the district administration has no say in it.” Asked why a portion of the district Collectorate was chosen for auction, the official said, “It is because the collectorate is the face of the government.”A senior industry department official said, “Unless the industry department, through sanction from the finance department, liquidates the Rs 4.17 crore decree before the deadline or secures an emergency consent order by depositing the valuation amount with the High Court, the district court’s execution process will proceed to public bidding.” Sources said the industry department has not taken a call on the matter so far.In 1982, the state attempted to revive the closed Pandaul cooperative cotton mill by striking an agreement with a Kolkata-based private firm, M/s Radha Krishna Exports Pvt Ltd. The firm advanced capital and raw material worth approximately Rs 28.90 lakh. However, mill operations collapsed, and by 2000 it shut down completely, leaving the company’s funds unreturned.Story continues below this adAlso Read | Had Pablo Neruda walked through Madhubani, what ode would he have found?After years of unrecovered capital, the company initiated arbitration proceedings against the state government and mill authorities in 2012. In August 2014, a Patna High Court-appointed sole arbitrator (retired Justice Ghanshyam Prasad) passed a binding award, directing the state and mill authorities to pay the principal dues of Rs 28.90 lakh along with compensation and legal expenses, totalling Rs 33.44 lakh. The court also stipulated an 18% per annum interest penalty for any delay in settlement.Despite the arbitration decree, state departments failed to release the payment. In 2016, the creditor filed an execution petition in the Madhubani Civil Court. Over the next decade, compounded interest on the unpaid principal inflated the liability to Rs 4.17 crore by July 2025.In August 2026, the Madhubani District Court issued fresh attachment and auction orders for 10 kattha of land and the two-storey southern block of the Collectorate. In December, 2026, the Patna High Court dismissed the government’s appeal/petition challenging the lower court’s attachment decree.Also Read | Ancient strokes, modern canvases: How women artists lead Madhubani paintings’ global riseCourts in Bihar have ordered the attachment or public auction of major state administrative premises in the past, too. Notable instances include the Patna Old Secretariat (2019), where court orders targeted the Chief Secretary’s offices over a Rs 664.85 crore default to a cooperative bank; and the Aurangabad District Collectorate (2026), attached due to unpaid land acquisition compensation owed to a farmer.Story continues below this adIn each instance, auctions were averted as the state’s legal teams secured judicial stays or deposited the required funds with the court.