STATE OF PUNJAB Vs. AJIT SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) WHETHER an arbitrator in a reference under Sections 55 and 56 of the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act, 1961, has jurisdiction to grant future interest on the amount awarded till the date of its realisation is the solitary, though meaningful, question which falls for determination in this reference to a Full Bench.

(2.) THE facts are of no great significance and it suffices to mention that Ajit Singh and others, respondents, had brought the writ petition (giving rise to to the present Letters Patent Appeal) to challenge the arbitration award rendered by the Arbitrator on a dispute being referred to him under the Act, as also the appellate and the revisional orders upholding the same. The learned single Judge gave substantial relief to the petitioners and in particular held that the grant of future interest at the rate of six percent, by the arbitrator, till the principal amount was recovered was without jurisdiction and set aside the same. In doing so he placed reliance on a Division Bench judgment of this Court in Amar Kumar v. State of Punjab, 1975 Pun LJ 6. The writ petition was partly allowed and it is the common case that a Letters Patent Appeal preferred by the respondents--Ajit Singh and others, against this very judgment was dismissed in limine. The present appeal has been preferred by the State of Punjab and the learned counsel for the parties are agreed that the solitary challenge herein is directed against the setting aside of the future interest by the learned single Judge, which had been earlier granted by the Arbitrator and upheld in appeal and revision.

(3.) ADVERTING first to the decision of the final Court it is worth recalling that in Thawardas Pherumal v. Union of India, AIR 1955 SC 468 Bose J. , speaking for the Bench of three learned Judges observed as follows (at p. 478):-