State of West Bengal Vs Rajpath Contractors and Engineers Ltd. (Supreme Court of India)
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal filed by the State of West Bengal and upheld the Calcutta High Court’s decision dismissing the State’s petition under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 as barred by limitation. The dispute arose from an arbitral award dated 30 June 2022 directing the State to pay ₹2,11,67,054 with interest to the contractor and dismissing the State’s counterclaim. The State received the award on the same day and filed its challenge under Section 34 on 31 October 2022 after the High Court reopened following the pooja vacation. The principal issue before the Supreme Court was whether the State could claim the benefit of Section 4 of the Limitation Act, 1963 because the Court remained closed during the vacation.
The appellants argued that, after excluding the date of receipt of the award under Section 12(1) of the Limitation Act, the limitation period commenced on 1 July 2022 and, therefore, ended on 1 October 2022, the first day of the High Court’s pooja vacation. They further contended that e-filing during the vacation was available only for urgent matters and relied on earlier Supreme Court decisions in support of their case.
