MUNICIPAL CORPORATION OF DELHI Vs. JAGAN NATH ASHOK KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE respondent No. 1 herein was awarded the contract in question for the construction of staff quarters for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the petitioner herein and the work had to be completed within the stipulated period mentioned in the contract. Since, however, the work was not being done in the manner as the Delhi Municipal Corporation thought it ought to have been done, the petitioner wrote 29 letters during June, 197 8/07/1980 regarding the timely completion of the work. It is alleged that the work was not completed by the 15th of January, 1980 as per the schedule in the contract. Show cause notice was given to the respondent-contractor. THE contractor failed to give satisfactory reply and according to the petitioner, the contract was rescinded. THEreafter several other letters were written which are not material to refer. THEre was an arbitration clause in the agreement. On 2/11/1982 an application was filed under section 20 of the ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION ACT, 1940 (hereinafter called 'the Act') in the Delhi High Court. A learned single Judge, of the said High Court directed reference of the dispute and directed the Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation or anyone nominated by him to enter into reference. THE Commissioner on 17th of March, 1983 appointed one Shri S. M. Hasnain, Arbitrator and Superintending Engineer No. II, of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi as the arbitrator. He is respondent No. 2 in this petition. THE said arbitrator entered upon the reference and thereafter on 21st of August, 1984 submitted his award allowing some claims of the contractor and some counterclaims of the Municipal Corporation. THE Municipal Corporation filed its objections to the said award. THE learned single Judge of the High Court by his judgment and order dated 22nd of October, 1986 directed that the award be made a rule of the Court. A Letters Patent Appeal was filed thereafter but the same was summarily dismissed by a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court on 25/05/1987. THE petitioner seeks leave in this petition under Article 136 of the Constitution to challenge the said order. As the learned Division Bench did not give reasons, we must refer to the order of the learned single Judge.

(2.) THE arbitrator gave reasons in support of the award, THE question is whether reasonableness of the reasons in a speaking award is justiciable under Article 136 of the Constitution. We are of the opinion that such reasonableness of the reasons given by an arbitrator in making his award cannot be challenged in a proceeding like the present. It is desirable, however, that we state our reasons for so holding.

(3.) IN this case, there was no violation of any principles of natural justice. It is not a case where the arbitrator has refused cogent and material factors to be taken into consideration. The award cannot be said to be vitiated by non-reception of material or non-consideration of the relevant aspects of the matter. Appraisement of evidence by the arbitrator is ordinarily never a matter which the Court questions and considers. The parties have selected their own forum and the deciding forum must be conceded the power of appraisement of the evidence. IN the instant case, there was no evidence of violation of any principle of natural justice. The Arbitrator in our opinion is the sole judge of the quality as well as quantity of evidence and it will not be for this Court to take upon itself the task of being a judge of the evidence before the arbitrator. It may be possible that on the same evidence the Court might have arrived at a different conclusion than the one arrived at by the arbitrator but that by itself is no ground in our view for setting aside the award of an arbitrator.