In one of its recent judgement, the Supreme Court has observed that a delay of more than 120 days in filing an appeal under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act is not liable to be condoned.

The judgement came out when the Court was dealing with an appeal under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 that was filed challenging an order by District Judge rejecting a petition under Section 34 challenging the Arbitral award.

The main fact of the case was that there was a delay of 189 days in filing the appeal and therefore Court dismissed it.

The Learned Counsel contended before the Apex Court that, unlike Section 34, Section 37 doesn't exclude Section 5 of the Limitation Act.

Thus as a result of this even if the 90 day period is over, if a condonation application is made under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, it should be considered on its own merits notwithstanding the length of the delay.

The Top Court noted that in Union of India vs. Varindera Const. Ltd, it was held that any delay beyond 120 days in the filing of an appeal under Section 37 from an application being either dismissed or allowed under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 shouldn't be allowed as it will defeat the overall statutory purpose of arbitration proceedings being decided with the utmost despatch.

The Court stated that the present delay is beyond 120 days and thus not liable.

Therefore, it condoned:

We may only add that what we have done in the aforesaid judgment is to add to the period of 90 days, which is provided by statute for filing of appeals under Section 37 of the Arbitration Act, a grace period of 30 days under Section 5 of the Limitation Act by following Lachmeshwar Prasad Shukul and Others (supra), as also having regard to the object of speedy resolution of all arbitral disputes which was uppermost in the minds of the framers of the 1996 Act, and which has been strengthened from time to time by amendments made thereto.

The judgement has been passed by Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice S. Ravindra Bha on 06-12-2019:

Read Judgement Here: 

 

Share this Document :

Picture Source :