Damodar Valley Corporation v. AKA Logistics Private Limited
Court – Calcutta High Court
Citation – AP-COM -166 of 2025
Date – 23.09.2025
The Hon’ble Calcutta High Court has held that a Composite Arbitral Award can be challenged under a single Section 34 Petition.
The Court held,
“30. The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, does not contemplate drawing up of a decree. Drawing up of a decree is a mandatory ministerial act of the civil court. No such provision has been incorporated in the said Act. The arbitral award is not a decree. It is a deemed decree by legal fiction, insofar as, its execution is concerned. Although decrees are separately appealable units, an arbitral award (composite) is one unit of adjudication.
34. Thus, the requirement of the CPC that, each decree being a final adjudication of the rights between the parties would be appealable separately, cannot be imported into a challenge of a composite award. Section 96 of the CPC provides the right of appeal from every decree passed by a court exercising original jurisdiction. Thus, if multiple decrees are drawn in one suit, each decree has to be appealed from separately, failing which, the un-appealed decree attains finality. CPC requires that once a judgment is pronounced, the court must draw up a decree. The decree is the formal operative instrument that conclusively determines the rights of the parties to the suit. It is the decree and not the judgment which is appealable under Section 96 CPC, whereas it is the award which is under challenge under Section 34 of the said Act, as a whole.
35. Although the learned arbitrator awarded separate sums as per the claim in each reference, the fact that the claims were consolidated would appear from the manner in which the interest was awarded, that is at a simple rate of 9 % on the total sum awarded upon consolidation of the claims in five references.”
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