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Allahabad High court APS Special (No 3)
3 minute read
Legal matter
It further held that the date on which the signed copy is provided to the
parties is the crucial date in arbitration proceedings under the Act of 1996.
It is from this date that the period of 30 days commences for filing an
application under Section 33 for correction and interpretation of the award or
additional award. From the said date the arbitral proceedings would stand
terminated as provided under Section 32(1) of the Act of 1996. The said date
would also be the date of commencement of the period of limitation for filing
a petition to set aside the award under Section 34 of the Act of 1996.
Learned Senior Counsel for the appellant relying upon the aforesaid
decisions has emphasized that since the period of limitation commences only
when a signed copy of the award is made available which as pleaded by the
appellant, the signed copy of the award dated 28.07.2017 was made available
only on 28.11.2017, hence, the petition filed by the appellant on 02.12.2017
was within time and in any case was within the period as provided under
Section 34(3) of the Act of 1996. Thus, the impugned order is bad.
Apparently, the submission of the learned Senior Counsel may sound
attractive on the first blush, however, upon deeper consideration, the same
is fallacious.
In the instant case what this Court finds is, that upon perusal of the
material in the entire pleadings, there is no statement made by the
appellant that it did not receive a signed copy of the award dated
03.03.2017. The entire thrust of the submission of the learned Senior
Counsel for the appellant is that it did not receive a signed copy of the
award dated 28.07.2017, which although is an order by which the application
under Section 33 of the Act of 1996 filed by the appellant was rejected.
For the purposes of setting aside an award, the law provides for the
limitation in Section 34(3) of the Act of 1996 which has been noted
hereinabove first. Even Section 33 of the Act of 1996 provides certain time
lines as mentioned in the Section itself which has also been noted
hereinabove first.
From the conjoint reading of the aforesaid sections namely Sections 31, 33
and 34(3) of the Act of 1996, it would indicate that the form and contents
of an arbitral award is provided under Section 31 of the Act of 1996.
Section 31(5) of the Act of 1996 enjoins the responsibility on the
arbitrator to deliver the signed copy of the award to each of the parties.
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