Amma Lines Limited .. Respondent ... Mr. Navroz Seervai, Sr. Advocate, a/w Kartik Nayar, Aniesh Jadhav, Rishab Kumar, Nikhil Adkine, for the Petitioner. Mr. Naushad Engineer a/w Mr. Mangal Bhandari i/b Pranjali Bhandari, for the respondent. RESERVED ON : 2nd APRIL, 2024 PRONOUNCED ON : 5th APRIL, 2024 JUDGMENT: 1 The only point that arises for consideration in the present petition is whether the mandate of the Arbital Tribunal has come to an end on 31/01/2024, as agreed by the parties in the Joint Application presented before the Tribunal, on 23/11/2022, and pursuant thereto whether the Sole Arbitrator is entitled to continue the arbitration proceedings, since it is the submission of petitioner that he has incurred de jure ineligibility to act. Ashish ::: Uploaded on 12/04/2024 ::: Downloaded on 17/04/2024 18:55:13 ::: 2/35 ARBP 4224 J.doc 2 The Arbitration arises out of an agreement dated 26/09/1996 entered between petitioner, Glencore India Pvt Ltd (hereinafter referred to as 'Glencore') and the respondent, Amma Lines Ltd (the original claimant) for constructions, operation and maintenance of a barge terminal for unloading coal and associates facilities for conveyance of coal from barge terminal to BSES Dahanu Thermal Power Station and for transshipment of coal from ocean going vessels anchored in open sea and for further transportation of coal to Thermal Power Station. Dispute arose between the parties in the year 1997 and as the contract was terminated by Glencore and Amma Lines, the claimant invoked arbitration, as a result the proceedings commenced before a three member tribunal in December, 1998, as the claimant raised several claims including monetary claims aggregating approximately to 52.65 Crores. Glencore India filed its Statement of Defence (SOD) and raised a counter claim for an amount of Rs. 58 Crores. On completion of pleadings in the year 1999, 29 issues were framed in the year 2000. The proceedings continued and witness on behalf of the parties were examined and cross examined from 2000 to 2005 and thereafter oral arguments were heard, but on account of changes in composition of three member tribunal, the proceedings could not be concluded. On demise of one of the member, the question of filling the vacancy arose and upon the vacancy being filled up, by order of this Court dated Ashish ::: Uploaded on 12/04/2024 ::: Downloaded on 17/04/2024 18:55:13 ::: 3/35 ARBP 4224 J.doc 20/02/2015 appointing a Retired Judge, an SLP was preferred before the Apex Court. The parties were stuck on the appointment of Arbitrator since the year 2014 and in the SLP filed by Glencore, the disputes were made over to Justice Mohit Shah, Retired Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, who was nominated as a Sole Arbitrator. The Hon'ble Apex Court on 8/04/2022, specifically recorded as under: "Considering the fact that the dispute between the parties is very old and parties are litigating since 1998, we request the Arbitrator to finally decide and dispose of the Arbitration proceedings at the earliest and preferably within a period of one year from the first sitting. The first sitting may be within a period of four weeks from today. All concerned are directed to cooperate the learned Arbitrator in early disposal of the arbitration proceedings within the time stipulated hereinabove" 3 Pursuant to the above order, the Sole Arbitrator conducted the first meeting on 4/05/2022, for fixing the s