A&C Act| 'Section 34' Application Can Be Filed Within Three Months Of Disposal Of 'Section 33' Request Irrespective Of Who Made The Request: Delhi HC

The Court said that it is not necessary that a Section 34 petitioner must be the Section 33 applicant.

The Court was hearing an Application seeking condonation of delay of one day in filing the present petition OMP (Comm) under Section 34(3) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996.

The bench of Justice C. Hari Shankar observed, “…irrespective of who had made the request under Section 33 before the Arbitral Tribunal, Section 34(3) allows the Section 34 application to be filed within three months of the date of disposal of the Section 33 request by the Arbitral Tribunal….It is not necessary, therefore, that the Section 34 petitioner must be the Section 33 applicant.”

Advocate Karan Luthra appeared for the Appellant and Advocate Shashank Garg appeared for the Respondent.

Brief Facts-

The Arbitral Tribunal issued the impugned award on March 11, 2023, which was received by the Petitioner the same day. On March 28, 2023, the Respondent filed an application under Section 33(4) of the 1996 Act, seeking an additional award for an undecided claim. The Arbitrator agreed and passed an additional award on April 24, 2023. The Petitioner then filed an application on May 19, 2023, under Section 33(1) of the Act, requesting a correction in the additional award, which was dismissed on May 24, 2023. Subsequently, the Petitioner filed the present petition on August 22, 2023.

The Court observed, “The benefit of reckoning the terminus ad quem of limitation, for filing the petition under Section 34 from the date on which Section 33 application is disposed of by the tribunal, as envisaged in Section 34 (3), is not made statutorily dependent on the party who has filed the Section 34 application.”

The Court said, “if a party seeks to challenge an arbitral award, he has to file the Section 34 petition within three months from the date on which he has received the arbitral award. It is only this initial part of Section 34(3) which applies specifically to the party who is filing the Section 34 petition.”

The Court further observed, “The second and latter part of Section 34(3) adverts to a situation in which “a request has been made under Section 33”. It does not specify who must have made the request. It applies, therefore, irrespective of whether the request is made by the claimant(s), or the respondent(s), before the Arbitral Tribunal.”

Accordingly, the Court allowed the Application.