Bharat Bijlee Limited v. Damodar Valley Corporation

OCD-8 ORDER SHEET

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

ORIGINAL SIDE (Commercial Division) AP-COM/874/2025 BHARAT BIJLEE LIMITED VS DAMODAR VALLEY CORPORATION

BEFORE:

The Hon'ble JUSTICE GAURANG KANTH Date : 25th November, 2025.

Appearance Mr. Suvradal Choudhury, Adv.

Ms. Mayuri Ghosh, Adv.

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

...for the respondent The Court: The petitioner has preferred the present application under Section 29-A of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, seeking extension of time period for conclusion of the arbitral proceedings and publication of the award.

It is the case of the petitioner that this Court vide order dated 07.01.2020 appointed the sole Arbitrator to adjudicate the disputes between the parties. The pleadings were completed on 07.11.2021. With the consent of the parties, the mandate of the arbitral tribunal was thereafter extended by a further period of six months up to 31.08.2023. Subsequently, this Court vide order dated 03.09.2024 and 29.04.2025 extended the mandate of

the arbitral tribunal by eight months and six months respectively. The mandate has now expired on 19.11.2025.

Learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that the learned sole Arbitrator after concluding the proceedings reserved the award on 24.04.2025. However, due to his ill health, he was unable to publish the award within the extended time period. In view thereof, learned Counsel for the petitioner prays for a further extension of two months for publication of the award.

Learned Counsel for the respondent does not oppose the present application and states that the Arbitrator was suffering from health issues. This Court notes that the arbitration commenced on 07.01.2020 and the mandate has been extended on earlier three occasions. However, in view of the fact that the final arguments have concluded and only the pronouncement of award remains, the mandate of the arbitral tribunal is extended further for a period of two months from today to enable the sole Arbitrator to publish the award.

The arbitral tribunal is requested to make all endeavours to publish the award within the extended time period.

With the aforesaid observation, the present arbitration petition is disposed of.

(GAURANG KANTH, J.) R.Bhar