Mookerjee Port vs Marinecraft Engineers Private ...
2023 Latest Caselaw 2518 Cal/2

OCD-5
                                 ORDER SHEET

                                 AP/179/2023

                      IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
                       Ordinary Original Civil Jurisdiction
                                ORIGINAL SIDE
                             (Commercial Division)

        BOARD OF MAJOR PORT AUTHORITY FOR THE SYAMA PRASAD
                     MOOKERJEE PORT, KOLKATA
                              Versus
              MARINECRAFT ENGINEERS PRIVATE LIMITED



  BEFORE:
  The Hon'ble JUSTICE MOUSHUMI BHATTACHARYA
  Date : 5th September, 2023.

                                                                      Appearance:
                                                          Mr. Ashok Kr. Jena, Adv.
                                                                ...for the petitioner

                                                  Mr. Sabyasachi Chowdhury, Adv.
                                                              Mr. S. E. Huda, Adv.
                                                         Mr. Arjun Mookerjee, Adv.
                                                 Mr. Shounak Mukhopadhyay, Adv.
                                                              ...for the respondent

The Court: The Court had delivered a judgment on 31st July, 2023 on an

application of the award-debtor for stay of the arbitral award passed by the

MSME Council. The application for stay had been dismissed as not

maintainable on the ground that the petitioner award-debtor had not deposited

the 75% of the awarded amount as required under Section 19 of the MSMED

Act, 2006.

The petitioner award-debtor now seeks leave of the Court to deposit the

75% of the awarded amount which has been calculated at Rs.1,02,33,606/-.

Learned counsel appearing for the award-holder however takes the point

of maintainability on the ground that the pre-deposit cannot be made now

since that would be contrary to the mandate of Section 19 of the MSMED Act.

Counsel submits that the Award is of 28th April, 2022. The Section 34

application was filed on 28th March, 2023 without the pre-deposit. Counsel

submits that the leave now sought to be obtained in September, 2023 for

deposit of the amount is against the contemplation of Section 19 of the

MSMED Act.

The above point will be considered at the stage of arguments in the

Section 34 application.

The award-debtor is given leave to put in 75% of the awarded amount

with the Registrar, Original Side of this Court within seven days from date. The

Registrar, Original Side shall invest this amount in an interest bearing fixed

deposit account with a reputed bank which is a constituent of the Reserve

Bank of India.

The parties shall be at liberty to mention the Section 34 application for

listing next week.

(MOUSHUMI BHATTACHARYA, J.)

R.Bhar