Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 – s.29A(4) – Time limit for arbitral award – Extension of time – Application u/s.29A(4), for extension of the mandate of the arbitral tribunal – High Court, if ought to have allowed the same:
Held: Wording of s.29A(4) clearly and explicitly enables a court to extend the Tribunal’s mandate after expiry of the statutory and extendable period of 18 months – Application for extension can be filed either before or after the termination of the Tribunal’s mandate upon expiry of the statutory and extendable period – As per s.29A(5), the decision to extend the time is an exercise of discretion by the court and must be done on sufficient cause being shown, and on such terms and conditions that the court deems fit – Arbitration and Conciliation Act adopts the well-known language of limitation statutes and provides that the Court can extend the time if it finds that there is sufficient cause – Primary objective in rendering an arbitral award is to resolve disputes through the agreed dispute resolution mechanism as contracted by the parties – Thus, 'sufficient cause' should be interpreted in the context of facilitating effective dispute resolution – On facts, the pandemic had commenced even before the expiry of 12 months from the completion of pleadings, this Court excluding the period between 15.03.2020 to 28.02.2023 in Re: Cognizance for Extension of Limitation’s case, and the agreement between the parties on 05.05.2023 to seek extension of time by filing an application before the Court, there is sufficient cause for extension of the period for making of the award – Reasoning adopted by the High Court in holding that there is a delay of 2 years, 4 months in filing the application is erroneous – Order and judgment passed by the High Court set aside – Period for making of the award by the Arbitral Tribunal is extended. [Paras 2, 8, 10, 11, 12-18]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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