SEA STREAM NAVIGATION LTD. Vs. LMJ INTERNATIONAL LTD.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BACKGROUND:

(2.) A controversy in this case arises out of a foreign award. The petitioner award holder is a company registered in Malta. It owns vessels and lets them out. One of such vessels was "M.V. GALINA -II". On or about 21st January, 2000, the Respondent judgment debtor entered into a charterparty agreement with them. They hired the above vessel to carry soyabean meal in bags from the port of Kandla in India to a safe port in Libya. The Charterparty was in Gencon form. It contained an arbitration clause. A dispute arose about demurrage payable by the charterer to the owner, as is usual in such agreements. On 8th August, 2000, Mr. Patrick O'Donovan was appointed as the Arbitrator. By a letter dated 9th February, 2001, the learned arbitrator forwarded a copy of the award to the parties. The award was made on 17th January, 2001.

(3.) THE owners put the above foreign award into execution in our country. They filed an execution application in this Court. It was numbered as EC No. 28 of 2003. The charterer resisted the award. They, inter alia, said that it was un -executable. The execution application became contested.