Bharat Bijlee Ltd v. Damodar Valley Corporation

OCD-2 ORDER SHEET

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

Ordinary Original Civil Jurisdiction ORIGINAL SIDE (Commercial Division) AP-COM/30/2026 BHARAT BIJLEE LTD VS DAMODAR VALLEY CORPORATION

BEFORE:

The Hon'ble JUSTICE GAURANG KANTH Date : 19th January, 2026.

Appearance Ms. Mayuri Ghosh, Adv.

Mr. Suvradal Choudhury, Adv.

...for the petitioner Mr. Subir Pal, Adv.

...for the respondent The Court: The petitioner has preferred the present application under Section 29A of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 seeking extension of the mandate of the arbitral tribunal to conclude the arbitral proceedings and publish the arbitral award.

Learned Counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that by an order dated 07.01.2020, this Court appointed a sole arbitrator to adjudicate the disputes between the parties. The pleadings were completed on 07.11.2021. Thereafter, with the consent of the parties, the mandate of the arbitral tribunal was extended by six months till 31.08.2023. Subsequently, this Court vide orders dated 23.08.2023, 03.09.2024 and 25.11.2025 extended the mandate of the arbitral tribunal by one year, eight months and two months respectively.

Learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that the matter has already been heard and the arbitrator is to pronounce the final award. She

further states that the learned arbitrator has undergone a heart surgery in the last week of December, 2025 and he is still recovering from the said medical procedure. Hence, due to unavoidable circumstances, the learned sole arbitrator requires some more time to publish the award. Learned Counsel for the petitioner further submits that the tenure of the arbitral tribunal is expiring on 24.01.2026. Learned Counsel for the respondent states that he has no objection to the extension of the mandate of the arbitral tribunal. Upon submissions of both the parties and the materials placed on record, this Court is satisfied that there has been no undue or unwarranted delay on the part of the learned sole arbitrator in conducting the proceedings.

Having regard to the advanced stage of the arbitration, where final arguments have already been concluded and the award remains to be pronounced, the mandate of the learned sole arbitrator is extended further for a period of four months from today to publish the arbitral award. With the aforesaid observations, the present application stands disposed of.

(GAURANG KANTH, J.) S. Mandi