CHATTERJEE BROTHERS Vs. RASTRIYA PARIYAJANA NIRMAN NIGAM LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The only ground urged on behalf of the petitioner in assailing the award in the present proceedings under Ss. 30 and 33 of the Arbitration Act, 1940 is that notwithstanding the arbitration agreement obliging the arbitrator to give reasons in support of the award no reasons have, in fact, been furnished by the arbitrator in justification of the award.

(2.) The petitioner is a contractor who was awarded a work order following a notice inviting tender and the petitioner's offer thereupon. The arbitration agreement is contained in Clause 16 of the document entitled "Terms and Conditions of the Contract." There is no dispute that the last sentence of the clause stipulated that the arbitrator "shall give reasons for the award."

(3.) In the rather short award, the arbitrator has narrated in the first three paragraphs before heading into the several items of claim that he had been appointed arbitrator, that pleadings had been filed by the parties, that he had heard the parties and that he would take up all the points for consideration together. Thereafter, the arbitrator has described every head of claim and has furnished a few lines under each claim and has styled them as "reason for award." These "reasons" run into eight or ten lines in a few cases and less in most of the other cases.