FAO No.5009 of 2009 (O&M) - 1 - IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH **** FAO No.5009 of 2009 (O&M) DATE OF DECISION: 21.04.2010 **** Kewal Krishan . . . . Appellant VS. Punjab State Civil Supply Corporation Limited and others . . . . Respondents **** CORAM : HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR JAIN **** Present: - Mr.S.K. Singla, Advocate for the appellant. Mr.C.S. Bakshi, Advocate for the respondents. **** RAKESH KUMAR JAIN J. (ORAL) This appeal is directed against order dated 7.8.2009 passed by District Judge, Ferozepur, whereby an application filed under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (for short ‘the Act’), challenging the award of the Arbitrator dated 23.5.2006, has been dismissed on the ground of limitation. The case set up by the appellant is that the Arbitrator gave his award on 23.5.2006. He applied for certified copy, which was received on 1.5.2008 and then the objections were filed on 22.5.2008 within the period of 30 days, therefore, objections were within the limitation. On the contrary, stand of the respondent is that after passing of Award on 23.5.2006, appellant has mentioned that he had acquired the knowledge about the award in December 2007 yet he had applied for FAO No.5009 of 2009 (O&M) - 2 - certified copy on 11.2.2008, served legal notice and ultimately on 1.5.2008, after receiving the copy of Award of the Arbitrator, he filed the objections on 22.5.2008. Thus, according to the counsel for the respondent the sine qua non for counting the period of limitation is date of the knowledge and not the date of receipt of the copy of the award. I have heard both learned counsel for the parties and perused the record with their assistance. Section 34(3) provides that “An application for setting aside may not be made after three months have elapsed from the date on which the party making that application had received the arbitral award or, if a request had been made under section 33, from the date on which that request had been disposed of by the arbitral tribunal: Provided that if the Court is satisfied that the applicant was prevented by sufficient cause from making the application within the said period of three months it may entertain the application within a further period of thirty days, but not thereafter.” After perusal of the aforesaid provision, I am of the view that argument raised by learned counsel for the appellant that limitation would start from the date of receipt of the copy of the award would prevail and the argument raised by learned counsel for the respondents would not prevail for the reason that cut off date for the purpose of counting limitation is not the date of knowledge of the passing of the award but the date of receipt of the Arbitral award. In view of the above discussion, I found force in the argument raised by learned counsel for the appellant and as such impugned order passed by the Arbitrator on 23.5.2006 is hereby set aside and the matter is remanded back to him for deciding the same on merits. Both the parties are directed to appear before the learned Court below on 17.5.2010. Learned Court below is further directed to FAO No.5009 of 2009 (O&M) - 3 - decide the objections as early as possible preferably within a period of six months from the date of appearance of the parties before him. (RAKESH KUMAR JAIN) 21.04.2010 JUDGE Vivek