“Very sorry state of affairs:” Supreme Court on arbitral award pending for 30+ years

The Supreme Court on Friday expressed anguish in an arbitration case in which the arbitral award passed in 1992 remained pending for execution despite passage of more than 30 years [M/S Chopra Fabrications and Manufacturers Pvt Ltd v. Bharat Pumps and Compressors Ltd and Anr.]..A Bench of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathana also noted that even the execution petition in the matter was filed more than 19 years ago. “This is a glaring example of frustrating the arbitration proceedings under the Arbitration Act. The award has been passed in the year 1992 and the execution petition is of the year 2003, which is still reported to be pending,” the Court observed.It is very unfortunate that even after a period of 30 years, the party in whose favour the award is passed is not in a position to enjoy the fruit of the litigation/award, the Bench added..The apex court observed that the purpose of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act and Commercial Courts Act will be frustrated if the execution proceedings to execute the award passed under the Act are pending for 20 years. ”Even as per the new Commercial Courts Act, 2015 the commercial dispute is required to be decided and disposed of at the earliest and within the stipulated time provided under the Act, namely, one year,” the Court pointed out. .In the present matter, the Supreme Court directed the executing court to decide the matter within a period of four weeks.“Insofar as the present case is concerned, considering the fact that the Award which is sought to be executed is of the year 1992 and the execution proceedings are pending since 2003, we direct the executing court to finally decide and dispose of the execution petition within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of the present order,” the order said..Pertinently, the Bench gave directions to the Registrar General of the Allahabad High Court to place on record the following details:“(i) how many execution petitions to execute the Award both under the Arbitration Act, 1940 and under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 are pending in the subordinate courts/executing courts in the entire State; (ii) how many Section 34 applications are pending in the entire State and from which year and(iii) how many Section 37 applications are pending before the High Court and from which year.”.The information has be provided on or before April 28, 2022 when the matter will be heard again..Advocates Aarti Upadhyay Mishra, Rakesh U Upadhyay and Rishabh Pandey appeared for the appellant. .[Read Order]