BETWA RIVER BOARD Vs. NATHMAL GOPAL LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THROUGH the States of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh flows the river Betwa. In order to control the regulation and development of the inter -State Betwa River and the River Valley, Parliament has enacted Betwa River Board Act, 1976, for short, 'River Board Act'. For the construction of a submersible bridge across Betwa on Lalitpur -Chanderi road, work was awarded to M/s. Nathumal Gopal Lal and some dispute having arisen in regard to the claim of the Contractor, that was decided by Arbitrators, appointed by parties. However, the Contractor and the Betwa River Board are both aggrieved by the judgment of learned District Judge, Guna, in whose Court the Arbitrators had filed their award. Both have appealed and the appeals are heard analogously, to be disposed of by this common judgment.

(2.) ON behalf of the Betwa River Board, Shri Roman has appeared and he has made several contentions impugning the judgment as also the award passed by the Arbitrators. In their appeal, the Contractors have merely prayed for enhancement of the rate of pendente lite interest and their counsel Shri Avadh Behari Rohatgi has addressed us on the question of interest, but he has also made submissions urging strenuously that the contentions raised by Shri Roman merit no consideration at all.

(3.) WE propose to extract first the relevant statutory provisions and indeed first, of the Arbitration Act: