GOA SHIPYARD LIMITED Vs. SHOFT SHIPYARD PVT. LTD.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a bunch of thirteen appeals filed under Sec. 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (Arbitration Act), challenging orders passed by the District Court disposing of applications under Sec. 34 of the Arbitration Act. While Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) has filed ten appeals, Shoft Shipyard Private Limited (SHOFT) has filed three appeals. Amongst the ten appeals filed on behalf of GSL, two suffer from delay and hence they are accompanied by applications for condonation of delay.

(2.) In the light of the submissions made on behalf of the rival parties, various issues arise for consideration. It would be appropriate to first refer to the chronology of events in brief, in order to appreciate the background in which the rival submissions have been advanced.

(3.) SHOFT is the original claimant in the proceedings initiated under the Arbitration Act. GSL had floated a tender on 5/9/2007 for awarding contracts concerning construction of hull and for installation of machinery. The claimant SHOFT was the successful bidder and workorders were issued in its favour. Subsequently, certain additional works were added, which were also carried out by SHOFT. There were arbitration clauses in the contracts executed between the parties. Since disputes arose between them, SHOFT called upon GSL to refer the disputes to arbitration. The arbitration clauses required the disputes to be referred to the Chairman and Managing Director of GSL, but SHOFT objected to the same. In this situation, in the context of some of the work-orders / contracts, GSL appointed a former Judge of this Court as the sole arbitrator and in respect of other work-orders / contracts, proceedings under Sec. 11 of the Arbitration Act had to be instituted. This led to appointment of another former Judge of this Court as the sole arbitrator. As a consequence, arbitral awards were rendered by the two former Judges of this Court. Three awards were rendered by the sole arbitrator, Justice A. P. Lavande, former Judge of this Court on 29/9/2017 and two awards were rendered by Justice F. I. Rebello, former Judge of this Court on 17/4/2018.