HARYANA STATE SMALL INDUSTRIES & EXPORT CORPORATION LTD. Vs. ASSOCIATION OF CORPORATION AND APEX SOCIETIES OF HANDLOOMS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition filed under Section 34 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996 (in short the Act), whereby challenge is laid to the award dated 26.12.2011.

(2.) SHORN of verbiage, the grievance of the petitioner is that, the learned arbitrator has, in the award, while in a sense accepted its claims, the claims, however, have been made contingent upon the result of a pending arbitration proceeding between the respondent and the State of Bihar. The petitioner is aggrieved by the fact that not only the award vis   -vis the main claim, as also the interest sought, has been made contingent upon those proceedings.

(3.) INEXPLICABLY though, the learned arbitrator, while, broadly, agreeing with the fact that the petitioner was entitled to maintain its claim, came to the conclusion, based on the defence taken by the respondent, that it was a back -to -back contract, and that, the petitioner's claim would have to await the result of the pending litigation, as indicated above, between the respondent and the Government of Bihar. The operative part of the learned arbitrator's reasoning are contained in paragraph 13 of the award. For the sake of convenience, the same are extracted hereinbelow: