BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM Vs. HARYANA TELECOM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) (ORAL) Present petition has been filed under Section 34 of Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereinafter referred to as "Act, 1996") challenging the arbitral Award dated 7th August, 2000 passed by Mr. Justice P.K. Bahri (Retd.).

(2.) At the outset, Mr. Narendera M. Sharma, learned counsel for respondent-claimant submitted that the objection petition was barred by limitation. He stated that the objection petition challenging the impugned Award had initially been filed on 12th December, 2000 before the District Court, Ambala, Haryana and on 8 th January, 2001 before the High Court of Himachal Pradesh at Shimla. On an application filed under Section 42 of Act, 1996 read with Order 7 Rule 11 of Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (in short "CPC") by the respondent-claimant, the District Court, Ambala vide order dated 16th May, 2001 dismissed the objection petition under Order 7 Rule 11 of CPC. Thereafter petitioner-objector filed the objection petition in this Court on 9th July, 2001, even though on 22nd August, 2000 the Arbitrator had forwarded a signed copy of the impugned Award to petitioner-objector' counsel. In this connection, he drew my attention to Item No. 24 of the Index of papers filed by the Arbitrator in this Court and a UPC receipt showing despatch of a letter by the Arbitrator to petitioner-objector' counsel Ms. Rashmi Gulati.

(3.) Mr. Sharma stated that assuming without admitting that service upon the petitioner-objector' lawyer was not good enough, the respondent-claimant had on 29th September, 2000 furnished another photocopy of the corrected Award to the office of the Chairman/Secretary of Department of Telecommunication (in short "DOT"), Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India which was duly received vide Diary No. 356/CH(TC). He stated that by way of abundant precaution on 3rd October, 2000, another copy of the letter dated 29th September, 2000 along with corrected photocopy of the Award had been filed in the Central Registry of DOT.