Case: Board of Control For Cricket in India Vs. Kochi Cricket Pvt. Ltd. & Others


Decision reasoning: 0[ds]23. All learned counsel have agreed, and this Court has found, on a reading of Section 26, that the provision is indeed in two parts. The first part refers to the Amendment Act not applying to certain proceedings, whereas the second part affirmatively applies the Amendment Act to certain proceedings. The question is what exactly is contained in both parts. The two parts are separated by the word `but, which also shows that the two parts are separate and distinct.Shri Sundarams submission is also not in consonance with the law laid down in some of our judgments.Equally, the suggested interpretation of Shri Viswanathan would not only do violence to the plain language of Section 26, but would also ignore the words "in relation to" in the second part of Section 26, as well as ignore the fact that Section 21 of the 1996 Act, though mentioned in the first part, is conspicuous by its absence in the second part. According to Shri Viswanathan, the expression "arbitral proceedings commenced" is the same in both parts and, therefore, the commencement of arbitral proceedings under Section 21 is the only thing to be looked at in both parts. Thus, according to the learned senior counsel, if arbitral proceedings have commenced prior to coming into force of the Amendment Act, the said proceedings, together with all proceedings in Court in relation thereto, would attract only the provisions of the unamended 1996 Act. Similarly, when arbitral proceedings have commenced under Section 21 after the coming into force of the Amendment Act, those proceedings, including all courts proceedings in relation thereto, would be governed by the Amendment Act. This is not the scheme of Section 26 at all, as has been pointed out above.Shri Neeraj Kishan Kaul, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of Respondents in SLP(C)of 2016, has argued that the first part of Section 26 does not apply to Court proceedings at all, thereby indicating that the Amendment Act must be given retrospective effect insofar as Court proceedings in relation to arbitral proceedings are concerned.For this purpose, he relied on Minister of Public Works of the Government of the State of Kuwait (supra).31. In that case, the question that arose was as to the correct construction of Section 7(1) of the U.K. Arbitration Act, 1975. The said section was given retrospective effect in applying the New York Convention to arbitration agreements that were entered into before the convention was made applicable, for the reason that nobody had an accrued right/defence which was taken away. All defences available in a common law action on the award would be available and continued to be available. Hence, it was held that the award could always have been enforced by one form of procedure and that it subsequently became enforceable by an alternative form. This judgment can have no application to the present case, inasmuch as the Amendment Act, as applicable to Court proceedings that arose in relation to arbitral proceedings, cannot be said to apply to mere forms of procedure, but also includes substantive law applicable to such Court proceedings post the Amendment Act. Also, it is wholly fallacious to say that since the first part of Section 26 does not refer to Court proceedings in relation to arbitral proceedings, the Amendment Act is retrospective insofar as such proceedings are concerned. The second part of Section 26 would then have to be completely ignored, which, as has been seen hereinabove, applies to Court proceedings in relation to arbitral proceedings only prospectively, i.e. if such Court proceedings are commenced after the Amendment Act comes into force. For these reasons, such an interpretation of Section 26 is unacceptable.32. Shri Chidambaram, appearing on behalf of some of the Respondents, has argued that the interpretation accepted by this Court supra is the correct interpretation. He has also argued that, alternatively, the expression "in relation to arbitral proceedings" in the second part of Section 26 would also include within it arbitral proceedings before the arbitral tribunal, as otherwise Section 26 would not apply the Amendment Act to such arbitral proceedings. We are afraid that this alternative interpretation does not appeal to us, for the simple reason that when the first part of Section 26 makes it clear that arbitral proceedings commenced before the Amendment Act would not be governed by the Amendment Act, it is clear that arbitral proceedings that have commenced after the Amendment Act comes into force would be so governed by it, as has been held by us above. The negative form of the language of the first part only becomes necessary to indicate that parties may otherwise agree to apply the Amendment Act to arbitral proceedings commenced even before the Amendment Act comes into force. The absence of any reference to Section 21 of the 1996 Act in the second part of Section 26 of the Amendment Act is also a good reason as to why arbitral proceedings before an arbitral tribunal are not contemplated in the second part.33. Shri Sibal has argued that Section 26 is not a savings clause at all and cannot be construed as such. According to the learned senior counsel, Section 26 manifests a clear intention to destroy all rights, vested or otherwise, which have accrued under the unamended 1996 Act. We are unable to accept these submissions as it is clear that the intendment of Section 26 is to apply the Amendment Act prospectively to arbitral proceedings and to court proceedings in relation thereto. This approach again does not commend itself to us.34. Dr. Singhvi has, however, argued that the approach indicated by us above could be termed as an "intermediate approach", i.e. it is an approach which does not go to either of the extreme approaches of Shri Sundaram, Shri Viswanathan and Shri Datar or that of Shri Sibal. Further, according to the learned senior counsel, this approach has the merit of both clarity, as well as no anomalies arising as a result, as it is clear that the Amendment Act is to be applied only prospectively with effect from the date of its commencement, and only to arbitral proceedings and to court proceedings in relation thereto, which have commenced on or after the commencement of the Amendment Act. We think this is the correct approach as has already been indicated by us above.The judgment in Thyssen (supra) dealt with a differently worded provision, and emphasized the difference in language between the expression "to" and the expression "in relation to". In reference to the Acts which were repealed under Section 85, proceedings which commenced before the 1996 Act were to be governed by the repealed Acts. These proceedings would be the entire gamut of proceedings, i.e. from the stage of commencement of arbitral proceedings until the challenge proceedings against the arbitral award had been exhausted. Similar was the position with respect to the applicability of the 1996 Act, which would again apply to the entire gamut of arbitral proceedings, beginning with commencement and ending with enforcement of the arbitral award. It is clear, therefore, that Section 85(2)(a) has two major differences in language with Section 26: one, that the expression "in relation to" does not appear in the first part of Section 26 and only the expression "to" appears; and, second, that "commencement" in the first part of Section 26 is as is understood by Section 21 of the 1996 Act. The second part of Section 85(2)(a) is couched in language similar to the second part of Section 26 with this difference, that Section 21 contained in the first part of Section 26 is conspicuous by its absence in the second part.From a reading of Section 26 as interpreted by us, it thus becomes clear that in all cases where the Section 34 petition is filed after the commencement of the Amendment Act, and an application for stay having been made under Section 36 therein, will be governed by Section 34 as amended and Section 36 as substituted.The matter can also be looked at from a slightly different angle. Section 36, prior to the Amendment Act, is only a clog on the right of the decree holder, who cannot execute the award in his favour, unless the conditions of this section are met. This does not mean that there is a corresponding right in the judgment debtor to stay the execution of such an award. Learned counsel on behalf of the Appellants have, however, argued that a substantive change has been made in the award, which became an executable decree only after the Section 34 proceedings were over, but which is now made executable as if it was a decree with immediate effect, and that this change would, therefore, take away a vested right or accrued privilege in favour of the Respondents. It has been argued, relying upon a number of judgments, that since Section 36 is a part of the enforcement process of awards, there is a vested right or at least a privilege accrued in favour of the Appellants in the unamended 1996 Act applying insofar as arbitral proceedings and court proceedings in relation thereto have commenced, prior to the commencement of the Amendment Act. The very judgment strongly relied upon by senior counsel for the appellants, namely Garikapati Veeraya (supra), itself states in proposition (v) at page 515, that the vested right of appeal can be taken away only by a subsequent enactment, if it so provides specifically or by necessary intendment and not otherwise. We have already held that Section 26 does specifically provide that the court proceedings in relation to arbitral proceedings, being independent from arbitral proceedings, would not be viewed as a continuation of arbitral proceedings, but would be viewedStructures (P) Ltd. v. MaharashtraIndustries Development Corpn. Ltd., (2010) 3 SCC 34  atwhich was cited for the purpose of stating that a Section 34 proceeding could be regard as an "appeal" within the meaning of Section 7 of the Interest on Delayed Payments To Small Scale and Ancillary Industrial Undertakings Act, 1993, is obviously distinguishable on the ground that it pertains to the said expression appearing in a beneficial enactment, whose object would be defeated if the word "appeal" did not include a Section 34 application.Being a procedural provision, it is obvious that the context of Section 36 is that the expression "has been" would refer to Section 34 petitions filed before the commencement of the Amendment Act and would be one pointer to the fact that the said section would indeed apply, in its substituted form, even to such petitions.In 2004, this Courts Judgment in National Aluminium Company (supra) had recommended that Section 36 be substituted, as it defeats the very objective of the alternative dispute resolution system, and that the Section should be amended at the earliest to bring about the required change in law. It would be clear that looking at the practical aspect and the nature of rights presently involved, and the sheer unfairness of the unamended provision, which granted an automatic stay to execution of an award before the enforcement process of Section 34 was over (and which stay could last for a number of years) without having to look at the facts of each case, it is clear that Section 36 as amended should apply to Section 34 applications filed before the commencement of the Amendment Act also for the aforesaid reasons.However, Shri Viswanathan strongly relied upon the observations made in paragraph 32 in Thyssen (supra) and the judgment in Hameed Joharan v. Abdul Salam, (2001) 7 SCC 573. It is no doubt true that paragraph 32 in Thyssen (supra) does, at first blush, support Shri Viswanathans stand. However, this was stated in the context of the machinery for enforcement under Section 17 of the 1940 Act which, as we have seen, differs from Section 36 of the 1996 Act, because of the expression "in relation to arbitral proceedings", which took in the entire gamut, starting from the arbitral proceedings before the arbitral tribunal and ending up with enforcement of the award. It was also in the context of the structure of the 1940 Act being completely different from the structure of the 1996 Act, which repealed the 1940 Act. In the present case, it is clear that "enforcement" in Section 36 is to treat the award as if it were a decree and enforce it as such under the Code of Civil Procedure, which would only mean that such decree has to be executed in the manner indicated. Also, a stray sentence in a judgment in a particular context cannot be torn out of such context and applied in a situation where it has been argued that enforcement and execution are one and the same, at least for the purpose of the 1996 Act.For the same reason, it is clear that the judgment in Hameed Joharan (supra), which stated that execution and enforcement were different concepts in law, was in the context of Article 136 of the Limitation Act, 1963, read with Section 35 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, which is wholly different.Shri Viswanathan then referred us to this Courts judgment in Akkayanaicker v. A.A.A. Kotchadainaidu and Anr. (2004) 12 SCC 469 , which, according to him, has followed the judgment in Hameed Joharan (supra). This judgment again would have no application for the simple reason that the narrow point that was decided in that case was whether the time period for execution of a decree under Section 136 of the Limitation Act would start when the decree was originally made or whether a fresh period of limitation would begin after the decree was amended having been substantially scaled down by a Debt Relief Act. This Court held that as the original decree could not be enforced and only the amended decree could be enforced, 12 years has to be counted from the date of the amended decree. It is clear that this judgment also does not carry the matter further.Learned counsel for the Appellants have painted a lurid picture of anomalies that would arise in case the Amendment Act were generally to be made retrospective in application. Since we have already held that the Amendment Act is only prospective in application, no such anomalies can possibly arise. It may also be noted that the choosing of Section 21 as being the date on which the Amendment Act would apply to arbitral proceedings that have been commenced could equally be stated to give rise to various anomalies. One such anomaly could be that the arbitration agreement itself may have been entered into years earlier, and disputes between the parties could have arisen many years after the said arbitration agreement. The argument on behalf of the Appellants is that parties are entitled to proceed on the basis of the law as it exists on the date on which they entered into an agreement to refer disputes to arbitration. If this were to be the case, the starting point of the application of the Amendment Act being only when a notice to arbitrate has been received by the respondent, which as has been stated above, could be many years after the arbitration agreement has been entered into, would itself give rise to the anomaly that the amended law would apply even to arbitration proceedings years afterwards as and when a dispute arises and a notice to arbitrate has been issued under Section 21. In such a case, the parties, having entered into an arbitration agreement years earlier, could well turn around and say that they never bargained for the change in law that has taken place many years after, and which change will apply to them, since the notice, referred to in Section 21, has been issued after the Amendment Act has come into force. Cut off dates, by their very nature, are bound to lead to certain anomalies, but that does not mean that the process of interpretation must be so twisted as to negate both the plain language as well as the object of the amending statute. On this ground also, we do not see how an emotive argument can be converted into a legal one, so as to interpret Section 26 in a manner that would be contrary to both its plain language and object.We are of the opinion that even though the High Court may not be strictly correct in its appreciation of the law, yet it has attempted to do justice on the facts of the case aslast words are important. If what Mr. Mehta says is correct and the decree was in favour of WWIL and not Enercon, that necessarily posits a rejection of Enercons claim for damages and, therefore, a material disadvantage to Enercon. But this is not what the Arbitral Tribunal did at all. It accepted Enercons plea. It accepted its argument that the Mehras were guilty of wrongdoing. It accepted that the Mehras were liable to make good any advantage or benefit they have received. The Arbitral Tribunal merely changed the vehicle or direction by which that recompense, restitution or recovery was to be made. The nomenclature is immaterial. Given the nature of disputes, indeed, WWIL could never put this decree into execution. It never sought this relief. It could not have. This is not in fact, as paragraph 298, says a relief in favour of WWIL at all although WWIL may benefit from it. It is a relief and a decree in favour of and only ofthis view of the matter, we do not think it appropriate, in the interest of justice, to interfere with the impugned judgment on this count.