RAJINDER SINGH LAMBA Vs. HARYANA STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS order shall dispose of two revision petitions being Civil Revision No. 2429 of 1987 and 2430 of 1987 as common questions of law and fact are involved.

(2.) FOR the sake of convenience, the facts are borrowed from Civil Revision No. 2429 of 1987.

(3.) THE petitioner before this Court is a contractor. He has impugned the order dated May 14, 1987 passed by the learned Additional District Judge whereby the judgment and decree dated December 2, 1985 passed by the Sub-Judge Ist Class was set aside. The learned Sub-Judge vide his judgment and decree dated December 2, 1985 had directed that the award dated January 20, 1985 passed by the Arbitrator be made Rule of the Court. The objections filed by the respondent Haryana State Electricity Board (for short, 'the Board') were rejected. The appeal filed by the Board was allowed by the learned Additional District Judge and the judgment and decree passed by the learned Sub-Judge were set aside. Consequently, the award made by the Arbitrator was also set aside. The contractor had entered into an agreement with the Board relating to earth work, excavation, transportation etc. Subsequently, a dispute arose between the parties and as per the agreement between the parties, the matter was duly referred for determination to the Arbitrator. The Arbitrator entered into reference on December 5, 1983. Subsequently, the Arbitrator Kaushal Dev retired on attaining the age of superannuation. At that stage, a communication dated March 28, 1984 was issued by the Board to the effect that since the Arbitrator had already entered into the arbitration proceedings, therefore, the aforesaid Arbitrator Shri Kaushal Dev shall continue with the proceedings. It was, thus, clear that after the superannuation of the aforesaid Arbitrator, the proceedings were entrusted to him by name for being continued. The parties placed relevant material in support of their respective pleas before the Arbitrator. Two specific consents Exs. A-1 and A-4 were also placed before the Arbitrator by the parties consenting to the Arbitrator giving award after the expiry of four months. In fact vide consent dated December 28, 1984, it was agreed between the parties that the Arbitrator could pronounce the award within two months of the aforesaid date.