Civil Writ Petition No. 14962 of 1991 1 In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, at Chandigarh. Civil Writ Petition No. 14962 of 1991 Date of Decision: 17.11.2009 Mrs. Kushla Sehgal and Others …Petitioners Versus Union of India and Others …Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA. Present: Mr. Harmanjit Singh, Advocate for the petitioners. Ms. Pooja Satija, Advocate for respondents No.1 to 3. None for respondent No.4. Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia, J. (Oral) The present writ petition was filed seeking quashing of award (Annexure P2) passed by the Arbitrator. Husband of petitioner No.1 was subscriber of telephone issued by the then District Manager (Telephones), Chandigarh. There was a dispute regarding the over charging. The matter was referred to Arbitrator. The Arbitrator gave award (Annexure P2). A Division Bench of this Court on 23.1.1991 ordered that petitioners would continue to pay at the rate of Rs.5,000/- per bill within a period of one month from 23.1.1991. It was further ordered that till the matter is disposed of by the Arbitrator, Telephone Department will not disconnect the telephone Civil Writ Petition No. 14962 of 1991 2 numbers. By now the amount assessed by the Arbitrator may have been paid and the petitioners may have obtained telephone service from other service provider. Counsel for the petitioners submit that he had opted the wrong forum to assail the award of Arbitrator and he be permitted to assail the award in appropriate forum. Counsel further submits that in case petitioners opt to assail the award in appropriate forum, respondent-department may not raise the plea that the challenge to the award is barred by way of limitation. In view of this, it is ordered that petitioners may take recourse to the alternative remedy, in accordance with law, and challenge the award by approaching the appropriate forum. In case petitioners do so, respondent will not raise objection that the challenge to the award is barred by limitation. This liberty is granted to the petitioners as the present writ petition was pending in this Court since 1991. With the observations made above, the present writ petition is disposed of. (Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia) Judge November 17, 2009 “DK”