Arbitral Award of Rs.1354 crores in favour of Reliance Infrastructure upheld by the Calcutta High Court
Judgment dated 29.9.2023 of the Calcutta High Court (OS) in the Arbitration Petition No.40 of 2020 Damodar Valley Corporation Vs. Reliance Infrastructure Limited
The judgment has made headlines in the newspapers.
Salutary Index giving complete insight at a glance on the judgment of 255 pages with reference to the serial numbers, contents, paragraph numbers and the page numbers.
Arbitral Award dated 21.12.2019 against the petitioner – Damodar Valley Corporation was passed.
The Award-debtor filed section 34 petition challenging the said award.
On 18.5.2007, the Corporation issued the notice inviting tender for international competitive bidding for construction of Phase 1 of Power Plant in District Purulia, West Bengal.
Letter of Acceptance for the tender of the respondent was issued on 11.12.2007 for Rs.2271.70 crores and date of commencement was 14.12.2007.
Three detailed contracts were executed on 6.12.2008.
Unit No.1 was handed over by the respondent no. 15.5.2015 and unit no.2 on 23.2.2016, after extensions from zero date of 14.11.2010 & 14.2.2011, respectively.
In response to the request of the respondent for payment of outstanding dues, consequential reliefs and return of bank guarantees, the Corporation sought liquidated damages by the letter dated 3.2.2017 for the delay of 468 days in completion of unit no.2 only.
The Arbitral Tribunal was constituted on 5.8.2017.
By the Arbitral Award, majority of the issues were answered in favour of the respondent, whereas, only counter claim of the Corporation for Rs.6 crores was allowed vide issue no.42.
The details of all 50 issues framed in the Award are given in para 4 of the judgment at pages 10 to 26.
By the comprehensive judgment, the Calcutta High Court upheld the arbitral award to the extent indicated in the judgment.
