Executing court cannot rewrite arbitral award; interest under the award was confined to the date it became executable as a decree.

An executing court cannot rewrite an arbitral award treated as a decree, and any correction or interpretation of an alleged mistake or ambiguity must be sought from the arbitral tribunal under the statutory mechanism. Where the tribunal expressly awarded interest at 9% per annum from 27-12-1995 till payment or decree, whichever was earlier, the interest clause had to be read as limited to the date on which the award became executable as a decree. On that reading, interest was payable only up to 31-3-1998, and the claim for interest beyond that date was not accepted.

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Issues: Whether, in execution of an arbitral award enforceable as a decree, interest awarded by the arbitral tribunal could be granted only up to the date on which the award became executable or up to the date of actual payment, and whether the executing court could interpret or correct the award to give effect to the interest clause.

Analysis: The arbitral tribunal had expressly awarded interest at 9% per annum from 27-12-1995 till payment or decree, whichever was earlier. The award was not challenged and had become final. The Court held that although an award is treated as a decree for enforcement by legal fiction, that fiction does not permit the executing court to rewrite the award. The appropriate remedy for any alleged mistake or ambiguity lay in seeking correction or interpretation from the arbitral tribunal under the Act. Since no such recourse was taken, the execution court could not alter the interest term. On a proper reading of the award, the interest was payable only up to 31-3-1998, being the date when the award became executable as a decree.

Conclusion: The interest claim beyond 31-3-1998 was not accepted, and the applicant was held entitled only to interest up to that date.

Ratio Decidendi: An executing court cannot modify or rewrite an arbitral award treated as a decree, and any ambiguity or error in the award must be pursued before the arbitral tribunal under the statutory correction and interpretation mechanism.

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