SOUMEN SEN,J. - (1.) Although a Special Leave Petition is pending before the Hon'ble Supreme Court and the judgment-debtor was directed to pay a sum of Rs. 1.5 crore to the award-holder which the award-holder has since been received, but for the balance amount, there is no stay.
(2.) The Hon'ble Division Bench on 21st September, 2017 allowed the cross-objection preferred by the award-holder. The said cross-objection was allowed and the part of the claim disallowed by the learned Single Judge was set aside. It appears that the State of West Bengal has preferred a Special Leave Petition. In the Special Leave Petition, an order was passed on 27th August, 2017 by which the award-debtor was directed to deposit a sum of Rs. 1.5 crore with the Registry of this Court within eight weeks hence which the award-holder was permitted to withdraw without furnishing any security. The award-debtor has deposited the said amount and the award-holder has realized the said amount without furnishing security. The award-holder submits that after giving adjustment to the said sum, a sum of Rs. 1.25 crore is still due and payable by the award-debtor. It appears that on 31st October, 2017, this Court directed the award-debtor to pay a sum of Rs. 1.03 crore within a week from the date of the said order failing which, the amount lying to the credit of the State of West Bengal with the Reserve Bank of India shall stand attached. In view of the failure on the part of the State of West Bengal to pay the sum, by a subsequent order dated 14th November, 2017, the said sum of Rs. 1.03 crore stood attached after taking into consideration that a Special Leave Petition has been filed on 6th November, 2017 and there was no stay of operation of the award which, however, has been incorrectly recorded in the last paragraph of the order as 'operation of the judgment of the Supreme Court', which is a typographical error. It should read as 'operation of the order under appeal by the Supreme Court'. This correction should be incorporated in the order dated 14th November, 2017.
(3.) Today, a prayer is made for a direction upon the judgement debtor to pay a Rs. 1.25 crores and part of it to the extent of Rs. 1.03 crores be realesed from the account attached upon furnishing an undertaking if directed. This submission is made in view of the fact that there is no stay of operation of the award for realisation of the balance amount and an order passed by a Hon'ble Division Bench in APO No.219 of 2018 [Pam Development Pvt. Ltd. v. Union of India and Anr.] dated August 1, 2018 by which time given to the judgment debtor to obtain stay of operation of the award was held to be not the correct view. The relevant observations of the Division Bench are as follows: "APO No.219 of 2018 and GA No.2119 of 2018 are disposed of by giving liberty to the appellant herein to mention the matter before the executing Court for the executing Court to take up the execution proceedings on any day convenient to such Court notwithstanding the matter having been adjourned to some time beyond August 15, 2018. In the event there is an order staying the operation of the arbitral award, the executing Court's hands may be tied; if not, the executing Curt should no longer look at the pendency of such application and, at least, require the awarded amount to be deposited.";