G K SAMANTA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE judgment-debtor seeks to turn the tables on the decree-holder to not only deny any further payment but also in insisting that the judgment-debtor is entitled to restitution.

(2.) ON October 30, 2000 the arbitrator made an award for Rs. 10,68,635/-which included interest of 15 per cent per annum in respect of several heads of claim, reckoned up to the date of the award. The arbitrator afforded the judgment-debtor 90 days' time (that is till January 28, 2001) to pay off the sum awarded or else be liable to interest at the rate of 18 per cent per annum from the date of the award till payment. Such is the position admitted by the parties at the hearing and reflected in the first entry in the list of dates made over on behalf of the judgment-debtor.

(3.) THE judgment-debtor assailed the award on January 21, 2001 and in such proceedings made an application on February 15, 2002 seeking leave to deposit the awarded amount of Rs. 10,68,635/ -. The Court made an order on February 22, 2002 for the deposit to be made with the Registrar, Original Side. The order provided that the "money remains deposit with the Registrar, Original Side, till the disposal of the application. " The application referred to in the order was AP no. 16 of 2001, the Union's petition under Section 34 of the Arbitration and conciliation Act, 1996. It is not as if the money was immediately deposited, the union dawdled over the deposit for some nine months. The deposit was not made by January 28, 2001 which was the time permitted by the award, though, in the ultimate analysis, such matter may be of little relevance.