MONSHER ENT Vs. IAAI AND ANR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Review Petition No.462/2015

(2.) By this review petition filed under Section 114 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC), plaintiff/petitioner states that it was never served any notice under Section 14(2) of the Arbitration Act, 1940 of the filing of the Award for the period of limitation of 30 days to commence under Article 119 (b) of the Limitation Act. By referring to the record of this Court, it is argued that the Order of the Joint Registrar dated 27.5.2014 wrongly records that petitioner/plaintiff was served but is not present whereas for 27.5.2014 only the respondent no.1/defendant no.1 was served. It is also argued that notice received by the petitioner/plaintiff thereafter pursuant to an Order of the learned Single Judge of this Court dated 13.8.2014 was only a court notice and not a notice under Section 14(2) of the Arbitration Act, 1940 of the filing of the Award, and therefore, on receipt of only a court notice the limitation under Article 119 (b) of the Limitation Act did not commence.

(3.) I have gone through the record. It is seen that the Joint Registrar has wrongly recorded on 27.5.2014 that petitioner/plaintiff is served whereas service report for 27.5.2014 in the miscellaneous file shows that it was the respondent no.1/defendant no.1 which was served and not the petitioner/plaintiff. Thereafter petitioner/plaintiff appeared only pursuant to service on 26.5.2015 but that appearance was only pursuant to the court notice issued originally by the learned Single Judge of this Court on 13.8.2014 and reissued thereafter on various dates and ultimately for 26.5.2015 when the petitioner/plaintiff was served of the court notice. In law, unless a person who wants to object to the Award is specifically served with a notice of filing of the Award as required by the third column of Article 119 (b) of the Schedule of the Limitation Act, the period of 30 days of limitation cannot begin to run for filing of objections. There are serious consequences of not filing objections within 30 days of receipt of the notice of filing of the Award, inasmuch as Award can thereafter be made Rule of the Court in the absence of the objections having been filed. Therefore, parties have to be necessarily served with the specific notice of filing of the Award for the limitation of 30 days to commence under Article 119 (b) of the Limitation Act.