M/S. S.Bose And Sons v. The Executive Engineer And ANR
IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
[CIRCUIT BENCH AT PORT BLAIR] ...
CO/20/2023 M/s S Bose and Sons Vs.
The Executive Engineer and another Mr. Tapan Kumar Das ... for the petitioner Mr. Shatadru Chakraborty Mr. Ramendu Agarwal ... for the respondent/ Opposite party April 26, 2023 (SR) Item No.10 Affidavit of service filed on behalf of the petitioner be kept with the record.
The award debtor/opposite party has filed an application under section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 for setting aside the award dated January 30, 2021 passed in relation to the agreement No. 34/Accts/EE/CD-III/2013-14 along with an application under section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963 for condonation of delay.
The said application for setting aside the said award has been registered before the Court of learned District Judge, Andaman and Nicobar Islands at Port Blair being Other Suit No. 04 of 2021.
The awardee/petitioner is complaining inordinate delay in disposal of the said suit and the application for condonation of delay thereto.
The petitioner by the instant application under Article 227 of the Constitution of India is praying a direction upon the Court below for expeditious disposal of the said suit and the said application.
Mr. Chakraborty, learned advocate appears for the opposite party and submits that the application under section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963 praying condonation of delay in filing the said application under section 34 of the said Act of 1996 is maintainable in view of the orders passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court extending the period of limitation due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. An application under section of 34 of the said Act of 1996, in view of the mandate of sub-section (6) thereof is required to be disposed of within a period of one year from the date on which notice upon the other side is served. It appears from the record that pursuant of service of such notice the awardee/petitioner has entered appearance in the Suit on March 22, 2022.
The learned District Judge therefore is requested to dispose of the application for condonation of delay as expeditiously as possible preferably within a period of two months from the date of communication of this order and in doing so shall not grant any unnecessary adjournment to either of the parties.
In the event, the application for condonation for delay is found to be maintainable and such delay is condoned, the learned District Judge shall make all endeavor to dispose of
the Suit as expeditiously as possible keeping in view of the aforesaid mandate of section 34 (6) of the said Act of 1996. CO/20/2023 is disposed of with the above terms without any order as to costs.
All parties shall act on the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court.
Urgent certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the learned advocates for the respective parties upon compliance of usual formalities.
( Biswajit Basu, J.)