Joy Enterprise v. State Of West Bengal

ORDER

OCD-2

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

COMMERCIAL DIVISION ORIGINAL SIDE AP-COM/918/2025 JOY ENTERPRISE VS STATE OF WEST BENGAL

BEFORE

HON'BLE JUSTICE GAURANG KANTH Date: December 10, 2025.

Appearance:- Mr. Arijit Bhowmick, Adv.

Ms. Pooja Agarwal, Adv.

...for petitioner.

The Court:- The present application has been filed by the petitioner under Section 29A of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, seeking extension of the mandate of the arbitral tribunal for conclusion of the arbitral proceedings and publication of the arbitral award. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that as per the terms of the contract between the parties, the respondent vide letter dated 06.01.2015 originally appointed the sole arbitrator to adjudicate the disputes between the parties. However, subsequently, the petitioner filed an application under Sections 14, 15 and 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, being A.P. No. 468 of 2019 before this Court for terminating the mandate of the erstwhile arbitrator on the ground of having failed to act without delay. This Court vide order dated 17.02.2023 terminated the mandate of the erstwhile arbitrator and

appointed Mr. Shwetank Ginodia, learned advocate as the sole arbitrator to resolve the disputes between the parties within a period of one year. Thereafter, vide orders dated 22.02.2024, 05.11.2024 and 15.05.2025, this Court extended the mandate of the arbitral tribunal by six months each. It is stated that the mandate of the arbitral tribunal has now expired on 21.11.2025. Learned counsel for the petitioner further submits that the matter is listed only for publication of the award. Hence, he seeks an extension for the period of two weeks to enable the learned sole arbitrator to publish the award. Learned counsel for the respondent states that the respondent has no objection to the said extension.

Upon consideration of the entire record, this Court is of the considered opinion that there has been no undue or unwarranted delay on the part of the learned sole arbitrator to conclude the proceedings. Having regard to the advanced stage of the proceedings and in the interest of justice, the mandate of the learned sole arbitrator is extended for a further period of two weeks from today. The learned sole arbitrator is requested to make all reasonable endeavours to publish the award within the extended time period. With the above observations, the present application stands disposed of. (GAURANG KANTH, J.) R. D. Barua