B.N. AGARWALLA versus STATE OF ORISSA

Citation: [1995] SUPP. 4 S.C.R. 390 · Decided: 16-10-1995 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: J.S. VERMA · Disposal: Dismissed

Judgment (excerpt)

A 
B 
B.N. AGARWALLA 
v. 
STATE OF ORISSA 
OCTOBER 16, 1995 
[J.S. VERMA AND K. VENKATASWAMI, JJ.] 
Arbitration (01issa Amendment) Act, 1982: Section 41-A(7}-Scope 
and Applicability of 
C 
Arbitraiion--T1ibunal-Transfer to-Proceeding pending before Ar-
D 
bitrator-'On the date of conu11encen1ent of An1end111ent Act' and in which 
'no award has been 111ade by the said date'-Held, these two expressions niust 
be construed hannoniously-So constnted it 111eans 'in which no award has 
been made 
before the said date' i.e. before commencement 
of the 
Act-Award made on the date of commencement of Act by Arbitrato,.._..Held 
without jun·sdiction. 
General Clauses Act, 1897: Section 5(3}-Applicability of 
Words & Phrases : 'By' in the expression 'by the said date'--Section 
E 41-A(7) of the Arbitration (Orissa Amendment) Act, 1982--Meaning of 
By the Arbitration (Orissa Amendment) Act, 1982 the Arbitration 
Act, 1940 was amended in its applicability to the State of Orissa. The 
Amendment Act came into force with effect from 26.3.1983. Section 41-A(7) 
of the said Act provides that "all arbitrartion proceedings relating to a 
F 
dispute of the nature specified in sub-section (1) which are pending before 
any arbitrator on the date of commencement of the arbitration (Orissa 
Amendment) Act, 1982 and in which no award has been made by the said 
date, shall stand transferred to and disposed of by Arbitration Tribunal'. 
An award for a sum of Rs. 95,003 was made by an Arbitrator in favour of 
G the appellant on 263.1983 i.e. the date on which Amendment Act came into 
force . The respondent-State challenged the award on the ground that the 
Amendment Act having come into force on 26.3.1983, an award made on 
that day was without jurisdiction in a pending arbitration proceeding 
which stood transferred to the Arbitration Tribunal by virtue of sub-sec-
tion (7) of section 41-A. The Subordinate Judge, Bhubaneswar made the 
H award rule of the Court. The respondent-state preferred appeal before the 
390 
B.N. AGAR WALLA v. STATE 
391 
I 
High Court which held that the Arbitrator had no jurisdiction on 26.3.1983 A 
to pass the impugned award. 
Against the decision of the High Court, an appeal was preferred 
before this Court. 
Dismis.sing the appeal, this Court 
HELD : 1. The High Court's conclusion that the arbitrator in the 
present case had no jurisdiction on 26.3.1983 to make the award does not 
suffer from any infirmity. The award made on 26.3.1983 cannot be said to be 
an award made before 26.3.1983. The award in the present case having been 
made on. 26.3.1983 and not before 26.3.1983, the date of commencement of the 
Arbitration (Orissa Amendment) Act, 1982, the arbitrator had no jurisdic-
tion to make the award as it was a pending arbitration proceeding which 
automatically stood transferred to the Arbitration Tribunal. [377-E, 396-F] 
B 
c 
2. Sub-section (7) of section 41-A of the Act provides for automatic D 
transfer to the Arbitration Tribunal of all Arbitration proceedings of the 
kind specified in sub-section (i) which were "pending before any arbitrator 
on the date of commencement" of the said Act and "in which no award had 
been made by the said date". Obviously, the expression "by the said date" 
here means by the date of commencement of the Arbitration (Orissa E 
Amendment) act, 1982. The First expression clearly means an arbitration 
proceeding pending before any arbitrator on the date of commencement of 
the Act, namely 26.3.1983. The meaning of the second expression should 
be consistent with that of the first expression since the two could not be 
used to create a conDict. [394-F-G] 
3. The second expression, namely, "in which no award had been made 
by the said date" was further used in sub-section (7) ex abundate cautela 
F 
to clarify the meaning of pending proceedings by indicating that only those 
arbitration proceedings in which the award also had been made "by the 
said date" were excluded from the operation of sub-section (7) and that G 
every other arbitration proceeding including those in which the award 
alone remained to be made "by the said date" stood transferred to the 
Arbitration Tribunal. In other words, if the arbitration proceedings had 
been closed but the arbitrator had not made the award till the midnight 
between 25th and 26th March, 1983 when the Act came into force, it was a 
pending arbitration proceeding governed by sub-section (7). [395-E-F] 
H 
A 
B 
392 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS [19

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