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TMI Blog2004 (4) TMI 645X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... h Court of Patna. He made an award and on 25.01.2002 sent the copies of the award and on 12.02.2002 minutes of the proceedings before the him to the Court. Report in this regard was placed before this Court on 18.02.2002, copies of which were served upon the concerned advocates. Objections to the award and application to set aside the award have been filed on 11.04.2002. Now, an objection is raised on behalf of the respondents that the application filed for setting aside the award in terms of Article 119(b) of the Limitation Act should have been filed within a period of 30 days from the date of filing of the award into the Court; that inasmuch as the office report had been served upon all the parties, it must be deemed that the said office report gives sufficient notice of filing of the award in the Court; that the period of limitation of counting 30 days commenced on 18.02.2002; that, therefore, the objections filed on 11.04.2002 are hopelessly barred by limitation. It is further submitted that the Court itself may order a notice of filing of the award or even the Registry can take steps to issue such a notice and reliance is placed on certain decisions of this Court as to how in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Court directed issue of notice to the parties regarding filing of the award which has been sent by the Registry. The Registry on its own could not have issued a notice without a direction from the Court in this regard. In that view of the matter, we do not think, there is any notice of filing of the award in the Court to the parties as contemplated in Article 119(b) of the Limitation Act. Further, on 11.03.2002 when the matter was listed before the Court, the parties concerned took notice of the same and thereafter, objections have been filed by the parties. In these circumstances, we think that the first contention urged on behalf of the respondents that the objections raised by the appellant are barred by limitation is incorrect and the same stands rejected. In the view we have taken, it is unnecessary to refer to the various decisions relied upon by the learned counsel for the respondent. Further, it may be useful to refer to one decision of this Court, which was not cited by either party, in which the effect of non-service of notice was considered by this Court. In Dewan Singh vs. Champat Singh & Ors., AIR 1970 SC 967, it is observed by this Court "that if a party files an ob ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of the contract of work for which both the parties were liable and apportioned the same between them without clearly examining whether there was any material for that claim at all. His contention is that there is absolutely no evidence to sustain any of the claims and in the absence of the same, it is not permissible for the arbitrator to have made the award. Shri V.A.Mohta, learned Senior Advocate appearing for the respondent, submitted that the material on record clearly indicated that there were certain joint statements before the arbitrator and they were all based on the measurement books or other material and if that piece of material is treated as evidence, there cannot be serious doubt that the view taken by the arbitrator is justified and no interference would be call for. On the first claim regarding non-payment of the final bill, reliance was placed by the parties before the arbitrator on a joint statement and the entries made in the measurement book. On the question whether reliance could be placed on the joint statement, the arbitrator held that he cannot attach any conclusiveness to the joint statement. However, he would examine the claims on their intrinsic merit. O ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of Rs. 91,013/- which has been clearly allowed by him while consider claim No.1 regarding non-payment of final bill and having claimed Rs. 91,013.72 which had been allowed by him the contractor could not once again claim the same amount under another head and the arbitrator rejected this claim on two grounds, namely, that there is no order in writing by the Engineer-in-Chief and secondly even if it had been executed, it had been paid for. The contention put forth on behalf of the appellant that there is absolutely no material to make a claim by the contractor in this regard cannot be accepted because these extra items have been mentioned in the measurement book and which clearly indicated that the work had been executed and he treated that the entry in the measurement book will itself amount to order in writing in terms of clause 11 of the agreement and, therefore, allowed the claim. In these circumstances, it cannot be said that the item claimed for extra works referred to in the final bill is the same as the claim under claim No.6 for extra works wherever such a situation has arisen the arbitrator has examined the same, say for example, in regard to petrol, oil and lubricant, he ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ll. The second item under this claim relates to watch and ward expenses. The arbitrator, after examining various aspects of the matter, took the view that the expenditure over watch and ward staff could not be more than Rs. 10,000/- per month for 14 months and the bill on that account would come down to Rs. 1,40,000/-. However, taking all the factors in respect of this claim, the expenditure under this head would not come to more than Rs. 84,000/- for the whole period and taking a lenient view of the matter, the arbitrator awarded a sum of Rs. 1,25,000/- under this head. The arbitrator considered the fact that the appellant took possession of the quarters for two days on 30.4.1984 and 1.5.1984 to accommodate delegation for the All-India Labour Union Congress but it was not in dispute that the same was handed over after a couple of days. Thereafter the quarters were allotted to employees in stages and actual delivery of possession was made on 10.3.1986. While the arbitrator considered that the claim on account of watch and ward to the tune of Rs. 7,09,000/- is fantastically high and in the written submissions it had been claimed that the building had to be maintained at a cost of R ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... some purchases had been made attracting escalation in the prices. Secured advance was only made to the extent of 60 to 75%. Therefore, he held that 25% of the escalation has to be compensated on that basis and allowed half of the claim of the contractor. When there was no dispute as to the fact that materials had been used for the purpose of the project and the value thereof, the claim made by the appellant having been duly examined by the arbitrator and after giving due allowance to the advances that have been made the award made by the arbitrator cannot be stated to be as one suffering from any error apparent on the face of the award. Therefore, this conclusion also cannot be interfered with. Claim No. 8 has been rejected by the arbitrator. Now we proceed to consider claim No. 9 for loss arising out of turnover due to prolongation of work. The claim made under this head is in a sum of Rs. 10 lakhs. The arbitrator rightly held that on account of escalation in wage and prices of materials compensation was obtained and, therefore, there is not much justification in asking compensation for loss of profits on account of prolongation of works. However, he came to the conclusion that a ..... 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