ASHIS KUMAR CHAKRABORTY,J. - (1.) The Court : - In this application, the claimant in the arbitral proceeding has filed this application under Section 29A of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, as amended by Act 3 of 2016 (in short "the Act of 1996") praying for, extension of time for publication of the award by the learned sole arbitrator. From the records it appears that on an earlier occasion by an order dated November 15, 2017, this Court, for the first time, extended the time for making and publication of the award by the arbitrator till the month of March, 2018.
(2.) It is submitted by the petitioner that the arguments on behalf of the respective parties before the learned arbitrator was completed on March 23, 2018. However, due to some unavoidable reasons, the learned arbitrator has not been able to make and publish the award within March 31, 2018. Therefore, according to the petitioner, when the hearing of the arbitral proceeding had already concluded within March 23, 2018, this Court should grant an extension of time for one month in order to enable the arbitrator to make and publish the award.
(3.) However, a serious objection was raised on behalf of the respondent to the prayer of the petitioner in this application. It was argued by the learned Counsel appearing for the respondent that in view of the provisions contained in sub-section (4) of Section 29A of the Act of 1996, there is no scope for the petitioner to approach this Court for obtaining second extension for making and publication of the award by the arbitrator.;