Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 – s.33 – Modification of award – Scope and ambit – Original award passed considering the claim made by the claimant as per its original claim and as per the statement of the claim made – Subsequent application u/s.33 for modification of original award – Maintainability of – Held: Only in a case of arithmetical and/or clerical error, the award can be modified and such errors only can be corrected – In the instant case, what was claimed by the original claimant in the statement of claim was awarded – Therefore, order by the arbitrator in application u/s.33 was beyond the scope and ambit of s.33 of the Act.
Allowing the appeal, the Court
HELD: The original award was passed considering the claim made by the claimant as per its original claim and as per the statement of the claim made and therefore subsequently allowing the application under Section 33 of the 1996 Act to modify the original award in exercise of powers under Section 33 of the 1996 Act is not sustainable. In the instant case, it cannot be said that there was any arithmetical and/or clerical error in the original award passed by the arbitrator. What was claimed by the original claimant in the statement of claim was awarded. Therefore, the order passed by the arbitrator on an application filed under Section
33 of the 1996 Act and thereafter modifying the original award cannot be sustained. [Para 12][7-D, E-F]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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