KESHRIMULL Vs. MEGHRAJ BASDEO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The matters in dispute in this suit were by agreement referred to arbitration. The present application by the defendants is that the award of the arbitrator which was filed in this Court shall be taken off the file on the ground that filing took place after the period of limitation provided in the Arbitration Act of 1940. The following facts require reference. The suit was filed in August 1940, the claim by the plaintiffs being for a sum of about Rs. 2800. On 23rd April 1941 it was referred to the arbitration, of one Johormull Nopani, who made his award in favour of the plaintiffs for the sum of Rs. 2173 and costs on 16 July 1941, on which date he notified the parties that he had duly made his award. The following day the plaintiffs requested the arbitrator to file the award in Court, and he sent it for this purpose to the Court, together with Rs. 3 in cash for the filing charges. On 19 July by a document (inadvertently dated 11 July) the parties were informed by the Court that the award would be filed upon payment of the requisite stamps. On 21 November 1941 stamps of the value of Rs. 3 were affixed and the award was filed. The contention on behalf of the defendants is that the award having been published and notification thereof given by the arbitrator on 16 July 1941 it should have been filed within 90 days of that date which period had expired before 21st November 1941 when filing actually took place.

(2.) Section 14(1), Arbitration Act (1940), provides that when an arbitrator has made his award he shall sign it and notify the parties in writing of his making and signing it and of the fees and charges payable. Under Sub-section (2) an arbitrator shall, at the request of any party to the arbitration agreement or if so directed by the Court and upon payment of the fees and charges due in respect of the arbitration, cause the award together with other documents to be filed in Court. Art. 178, Limitation Act 1908, was amended by the Arbitration Act and it now provides "under the Arbitration Act (1940) for the filing in Court of an award" a limitation period of 90 days from the date of the service of the notice of making the award. Originally this article provided a limitation period of six months from the date of the award, and the article was phrased thus: Under the same Code (Civil P. C., 1908) for the filing in Court of an award in a suit made in any matter referred to arbitration by order of the Court or of an award made in any matter referred to arbitration without the intervention of a Court.

(3.) A file has been produced recording the matters which transpired in this Court from the date when the award was sent by and received from the arbitrator on 19 July 1941. No objection was taken to reference being made to it. It would seem that a clerk in the office of the Court did not file the award because he considered some depositions or other documents had not been forwarded but it remained in the Court office. It was not until the month of November that the necessary stamps were purchased with the Rs. 3 sent by the arbitrator and the award was duly filed. It is quite clear that the plaintiffs took all steps which the Arbitration Act required by requesting the arbitrator to forward the award to the Court for it to be filed. The arbitrator complied with the request and remitted with his award the necessary sum for the fees. On account of reasons for which neither party was responsible or to blame the actual act of filing was not carried out until four months after the award had been received, but the defendants make this application on the ground that the award was not formally filed until after the expiration of 90 days when the parties were informed of it being made by the arbitrator. Reliance has been placed upon the wording of Art. 178, Limitation Act as amended by the Arbitration Act, and counsel for the applicant contends that this article prevents the actual Act of filing the award more than 90 days after notice of it having been given. Art. 178, Limitation Act, in included in the third division of the articles which is headed "applications."