BHANWAR SINGH Vs. CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal has been preferred by the appellants under Sec. 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 ('the Act') against the judgment dt. 29.11.2010 passed by the District Judge, Bhilwara, whereby, their objections filed under Sec. 34 of the Act were rejected. Brief facts of the case are that the appellants aggrieved by the award dt. 29.06.2005 filed application under Sec. 3G(5) of the National Highways Act, 1956 ('the Act of 1956') before the Arbitrator (District Collector, Bhilwara). The plea raised by the appellants before the Arbitrator was that the land in question, which was acquired, was not liable to acquisition and/ or should not have been acquired and the same deserved to be deacquired for the reasons indicated by them.

(2.) THE Arbitrator vide award dt. 17.10.2006 held that it had no jurisdiction to decide the issue as to whether the land in question be deacquired or not. However, despite holding that he had no such jurisdiction, the Arbitrator went on to reject the plea raised by the appellants on merits.

(3.) IT was contended by learned counsel for the appellants that once the Arbitrator had come to a conclusion that he had no jurisdiction to deal with the said issue, there was no occasion for him to decide the said suit on merits and, therefore, to the extent the decision has been rendered on merits and upheld by the District Judge, deserves to be set aside.