ASHESH BUSA Vs. ATUL GANDHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition filed under section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, the petitioner has impugned the award dated 27th Feb., 2017 passed by the arbitral tribunal rejecting the claims made by the petitioner and allowing the counter claims made by the respondent.

(2.) The arbitral award is challenged on the ground that the arbitral tribunal was comprising of three members (1)Mr.Kirit C.Mehta, (2) Mr.Ashish Tawakley and (3) Mr.Rajesh Tapuriah. However the impugned award is signed by only Mr.Kirit C.Mehta and Mr.Rajesh Tapuriah and not by Mr.Ashish Tawakley. It is the case of the petitioner that under section 31(2) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, (for short Arbitration Act) in the arbitral proceedings with more than one arbitrator, the signatures of the majority of all the members of the arbitral tribunal shall be sufficient so long as the reason for any omitted signature is stated. It is submitted by the learned counsel that there are no reasons recorded in the arbitral award as to why Mr.Ashish Tawakley, the third arbitrator has not signed the impugned award.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner invited my attention to the e-mail dated 19th April,2017 sent by the petitioner to the arbitrator Mr.Ashish Tawakley enquiring whether he was aware of the impugned award and whether he had signed the said award and the same was shown to him. He also invited my attention to the reply of the third arbitrator Mr.Ashish Tawakley informing the petitioner that he had not signed the award though the award was sent to him but he had not gone through it or signed it. This reply of the third arbitrator was dated 28th April,2017 i.e. before the arbitration petition came to be lodged by the petitioner.