Gujarat High Court Limitation Period Plea For Challenging Arbitral Award Cannot Be Raised For The First Time In Appeal

Gujarat High Court Limitation Period Plea For Challenging Arbitral Award Cannot Be Raised For The First Time In Appeal

The Gujarat High Court bench, comprising Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi, recently ruled that the plea regarding the limitation period for challenging an arbitral award under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (Arbitration Act) cannot be raised for the first time in an appeal under Section 37 of the Arbitration Act.

The appeals were filed against Civil Court orders that dismissed applications seeking condonation of a significant delay (200-230 days) in filing under Section 34 of the Arbitration Act. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) argued that the limitation period for challenging the award had not begun since it had not received the signed copy of the award.

The appellant, NHAI, pointed out that Section 31(1) of the Arbitration Act mandates that the arbitrator make an award in writing, signed by them. Section 31(5) further stipulates that the signed copy of the award should be delivered to each party. NHAI argued that the limitation period for filing an application to set aside the award under Section 34 begins only when the signed copy of the award is received.

The Supreme Court's ruling in State of Maharashtra vs. ARK Builders Pvt. Ltd. (2011) supported this view, stating that the limitation period under Section 34(3) starts only when the signed copy is delivered.

The Gujarat High Court observed that the issue of the signed copy of the award not being received was not raised before the Civil Court under Section 34 of the Arbitration Act and was brought up for the first time in the appeal. The Court further noted that if NHAI had been aware that the signed copy of the award had not been delivered, it should have raised this issue in its application under Section 34.

Consequently, the appeals were dismissed.