EX PARTE AWARD TO CONTRACTOR
Court tells power corpn to fix responsibility
Sarbjit Dhaliwal/TNS

Jalandhar, September 18
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of the Punjab State Power Corporation to fix responsibility and liability of officials, apparent lapse on whose part led to an ex parte award worth Rs 67 lakh to a contractor against the corporation.

Passing an order in this regard, Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the CMD to complete the inquiry in six months from the date of the receipt of the certified copy of the court order.

A report regarding the action taken against the officials concerned should also be brought to the notice of the court and should be placed on the court record. The HC has questioned that who is responsible for suffering an ex parte award in favour of a contractor before the arbitrator and for not filing objections on time under the relevant section of the Act in the court of the District Judge and the HC.

The court has observed: “Is it or not a handiwork of some officials of the appellant who are conniving with the contractor in getting him an undue advantage by way of an ex parte award because on August 29, 2002, the representative of the department had appeared before the arbitrator but did not wait for attending the proceedings, as recorded in the arbitral award, and since then no one appeared before the arbitrator, who had passed the award on April 30, 2003?” The Mukerian Hydel Channel (O and M) division of the corporation at Talwara had filed an appeal in the HC against the order passed by the District Judge, Hoshiarpur, on August 13, 2008, by which the objection field by the appellant under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, against the ex parte arbitral award dated April 30, 2003, were dismissed on the ground of limitation.

There was a dispute between the corporation and the contractor in respect of work contract, which was referred to the sole arbitrator for adjudication. After appearing before the arbitrator for a few dates, the corporation officials concerned stopped appearing and the arbitrator carried out ex parte proceedings and announced his award in favour of the contractor.