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Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd. v. M/s Navigant Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 140Decided 2 Mar 2021
Civil Appeal No. 791 of 2021
Justice Indu Malhotra · Justice Ajay Rastogi

Background

DHBVN had engaged Navigant Technologies to run call-centre services; after DHBVN terminated the contract, the dispute went to a three-member arbitral tribunal, which ruled 2:1 in Navigant's favour. On 27 April 2018 the tribunal orally announced the majority award and gave the parties only an unsigned draft (to point out clerical errors), while the dissenting arbitrator's opinion was still pending. The dissenting opinion was given on 12 May 2018, and the actual signed copies of both the award and dissent were handed over only on 19 May 2018. DHBVN filed its objections under Section 34 of the Arbitration Act on 10 September 2018, which the trial court and the Punjab & Haryana High Court held was time-barred, counting the three-month limitation period from 27 April 2018 (the date of the oral/draft award).

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that limitation under Section 34(3) runs from the date a party receives the duly signed copy of the award, not from an oral announcement or an unsigned draft, because Section 31(1) of the Arbitration Act requires every arbitral award to be in writing and signed by the arbitrators, and a party cannot be expected to challenge an award it has not yet formally received. On the facts, since the signed award was supplied only on 19 May 2018, DHBVN's objections filed on 10 September 2018 were within time. The Court set aside both the trial court's and High Court's orders and restored DHBVN's Section 34 petition to the District Court at Hisar to be decided on merits.

Lesson Learnt

The limitation clock for challenging an arbitration award starts only from the date the complete, signed award is actually delivered to the parties: a draft, oral pronouncement, or partial award (without a dissenting member's signed opinion) does not trigger it.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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