TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (1) TMI 260
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....e party seeking to challenge the award receives a formal notice (18.11.2022) of the making of the award, or from the date such party is aware of the existence of the award. In fact, this issue is no more res-integra. Following certain precedents of this Court, we have allowed the appeal having found that the respondent was fully aware of the making of the Award (by 21.09.2022), for the law does not require a formal notice of the making of the Award, as against knowledge/notice of the Award. Before considering the relevant provisions of the Act, precedents, submissions for drawing our conclusions, the short facts of the case are necessary: 3. Facts: The appellant's husband was the sole proprietor of a firm M/S S.R. Engineering Construction, which had secured a work order bearing CA No. CWE/TEZ/8 in 1987-1988 from the respondents. The work order was governed by the general conditions of contract, of which Cl. 70 contained an arbitration clause. The agreement involved the firm constructing a permanent 'armament section' at Tezpur. The firm completed the work and raised a bill for the same on 18.01.1993. However, as the respondents did not make the payment, the appellant was compelled....
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..... In fact, they deposited a cheque towards the balance payment for the fees only on 18.11.2022, after which it received the notice of filing the award on the same date. 8. On 10.11.2022, the appellant filed an application under Section 17 of the 1940 Act bearing no. Misc.(J) No. 61/2022 before the District Judge, Sonitpur, seeking pronouncement of judgment according to the arbitral award. 9. The District Court dismissed the appellant's application filed under Section 17 vide order dated 23.11.2022, holding it to be premature filed even before the limitation for filing objections to the award could expire. According to the court, the limitation began only on 18.11.2022 when the formal notice of the award was received by the respondent and the application to pronounce judgment according to the award was filed only on 10.11.2022 when the limitation period of 30 days was still running at the said point of time. 10. Questioning the above referred order, the appellant filed a Civil Revision Petition No. 138/2022 under Section 115, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 before the High Court. By way of the impugned order impugned before us, the High Court dismissed the revision and upheld the D....
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.... hand, Mr. Debojit Borkakati, counsel for the respondents submitted that both the High Court and the District Court were correct in taking the starting point of limitation to be on 18.11.2022. It is on this date that the respondents received a notice of the award from the District Court, and therefore filed an objection to the award under Section 30 on 22.11.2022. It was argued that what the law requires is to be done in that manner, and Section 14(2) was only satisfied when the respondents received a formal notice of the award. The mere direction to pay the balance fees of the arbitrator cannot be taken to be a formal notice that the award is filed. The text of Section 14(2) is very specific in its requirements, and if any other legal event is taken to be sufficient compliance with the provision, its text will be rendered otiose. 12.1 It was further submitted that the intention of Section 14(2) is to enable the award-debtor to apprise himself of the award's contents, so as to file any objections effectively. Hence, the intent of the provision cannot be ignored and mere communication about the existence of the award cannot be a compliance with the provision. In any case, even if t....
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....ctions 14 and 17 of the Arbitration Act, 1940 are extracted herein below: "14. Award to be signed and filed - (1) When the arbitrators or umpire have made their award, they shall sign it and shall give notice in writing to the parties of the making and signing thereof and of the amount of fees and charges payable in respect of the arbitration and award. (2) The arbitrators or umpire shall, at the request of any party to the arbitration agreement or any person claiming under such party or if so directed by the Court and upon payment of the fees and charges due in respect of the arbitration and award and of the costs and charges of filing the award, cause the award or a signed copy of it, together with any depositions and documents which may have been, taken and proved before them, to be filed in Court, and the Court shall thereupon give notice to the parties of the filing of the award. (3) Where the arbitrators or umpire state a special case under clause (b) of section 13, the Court, after giving notice to the parties and hearing them, shall pronounce its opinion thereon and such opinion shall be added to, and shall form part of, the award. 17. Judgment in terms of awa....
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....ion 14, the notice is under sub-section (2) need not be a written one. 17. Apart from the authorities cited by the appellant, this Court has otherwise clarified that Section 14(2) merely functions to apprise the parties about the existence of the award. In Food Corporation of India v. E. Kuttappan, (1993) 3 SCC 445 the communication of the filing of an award to the parties' pleaders was taken to be sufficient notice for Section 14(2). It was reasoned that what is required is that the party comes to know about the decision for/against it, and there was no insistence of a specific form in the 1940 Act. The pleader acts as an agent of the party and his awareness is sufficient for the parties to access and scrutinise the contents of the award. Even if a formal notice is issued thereafter, it is at best an act of court which cannot disturb rights accrued in law. This is squarely applicable to the case before us, wherein the order dated 21.09.2022 precisely laid out that the award is available, and the only formality withholding the respondent's access to it is clearance of the arbitrator's fees. While a formal notice of filing of the award was only issued on 18.11.2022, applying this d....