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Road Construction Department, National Highways Wing, Government of Bihar vs. Patel Engineering Limited Ujjain Engicon India Private Limited (JV)

Original Miscellaneous Petition (Commercial) · 2026:DHC:8043Decided 17 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
O.M.P. (COMM) 438/2026CNR: DLHC010441052026
Justice Om Prakash Shukla

Background

The Bihar government's Road Construction Department sought to challenge an arbitral award (and an additional award) in a dispute with a construction joint venture, but filed its challenge petition 178 days beyond the standard three-month limitation period (plus the extra 30 days courts can allow) fixed by Section 34(3) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The Department blamed internal file movement between different government engineers, and separate settlement talks under a "Vivad Se Vishwas" government dispute-resolution scheme, for the delay.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that Section 34(3)'s phrase "but not thereafter" is a strict, absolute cut-off that excludes the general power to condone delay under the Limitation Act: a position settled by several Supreme Court rulings. Internal government file processing through various levels of officers, the Court held, is an administrative matter within the government's own control and cannot extend a statutory limitation period, especially since the settlement talks relied upon had themselves started only after the outer limitation period had already expired. The Court therefore dismissed both the delay-condonation application and the underlying petition as time-barred.

Lesson Learnt

Even government departments are held to the strict three-month-plus-thirty-day deadline for challenging an arbitral award: bureaucratic delay in processing files internally is not an excuse a court can accept, so government litigants must treat this deadline as an absolute cut-off, not a guideline.

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