After firm moves Delhi High Court to replace ex-SC judge as arbitrator, Centre says judge is ready to pass order

After a private firm moved the Delhi High Court to replace a retired Supreme Court judge as a sole arbitrator due to a 16-month delay in pronouncing the award, the Central government informed the Bench on Wednesday that the judge is ready to pass the award any day. 

“He is ready for pronouncement any time. For everybody, he has sent a mail,” the counsel told the Court. 

However, the Court said that the company is raising a legal argument that without the arbitrator’s mandate being extended, he is functus officio (mandate expired) as of today. 

“Move an application under 29A [of Arbitration and Conciliation Act],” Justice Subramonium Prasad told the government counsel. 

After this, the Court adjourned the matter to next week. 

As reported earlier, the retired judge had reserved his decision in the arbitration in July 2024, but is yet to pass the award.

The petitioner contended that the arbitrator's mandate expired over 40 days ago. However, they had received an email from the arbitrator urging the parties to seek a two-month extension from the Court a day before the hearing. 

The company sought termination of the existing mandate by filing a plea under Section 14 of the Arbitration Act. It further sought the appointment of a substitute arbitrator, preferably one having technical experience as contemplated under the contract.

When the matter was taken up on November 13, Justice Prasad had said that the case amounted to “an embarrassing plea”.