3I INFOTECH LIMITED Vs. ROMILA BAJAJ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Instant "Original Petition" ("OP" for brevity) has been filed under Section 34 of "The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996" ("A & C Act" for brevity) assailing an arbitral award dated 05.12.2013 and corrected arbitral award dated 18.02.2014 (hereinafter collectively referred to as "impugned award" for the sake of convenience and clarity made by a three member "Arbitral Tribunal" (hereinafter "AT" for brevity) constituted by Respondents 2, 3 and 4 in instant OP.

(2.) Petitioner in instant OP before this Court was the claimant before AT and first respondent in instant OP before this Court was the sole respondent before AT. As mentioned supra, "impugned award" is a collective reference to an arbitral award dated 05.12.2013 and a corrected version of the arbitral award dated 18.02.2014. This corrected version of arbitral award has been referred to as "Additional Award" in instant OP. In the considered opinion of this Court, it cannot be referred to as an "additional arbitral award". A perusal of Sub-section (7) of Section 33 of A & C Act brings to light that any change made to an arbitral award post making of the arbitral award fall in three categories and they are (a) correction, (b) interpretation and (c) addition. For the purpose of clarity, this Court deems it appropriate to extract sub-section (7) of Section 33 of A & C Act and the same reads as follows:

(3.) Therefore, a perusal of the 18.02.2014 proceedings of AT post making of the award dated 05.12.2013 reveals that it would be appropriate and apt to refer to 18.02.2014 award as "Corrected Arbitral Award" rather than referring to the same as "Additional Arbitral Award". This will not be a mere matter of semantics or different nomenclatures, as the statute itself perceives three kinds of changes to an arbitral award post making of the same and therefore, it is a matter of appropriate statutory description. Considering the nature of the matter before this Court, it may not be necessary to delve into this aspect of the case any further and it would suffice to say that arbitral award dated 05.12.2013 made by AT and the corrected arbitral award dated 18.02.2014 shall be collectively referred to as ' impugned award".