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Judgment
Vibhu Bakhru, J
The petitioner (hereafter ‘Cobra’) has filed these petitions under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereafter ‘the A&C Act’) impugning a common arbitral award dated 29.07.2020 (hereafter ‘the impugned award’) rendered by an Arbitral Tribunal comprising of a former Judge of this Court as the Sole Arbitrator (hereafter ‘the Arbitral Tribunal’).
The impugned award was delivered in the context of disputes that had arisen between the parties in relation with two contracts each in respect of Packages G-14A, G-17, G-19A, and G-19B. The works stipulated under the contracts were not finished by Cobra as per the scheduled completion dates.
Cobra has challenged the said award to the extent that the Arbitral Tribunal has rejected its claim for payment of sales tax in addition to the amounts agreed. According to Cobra, it was liable to be reimbursed the sales tax on ‘bought out’ items.
According to the respondent (hereafter ‘HVPNL’), the price quoted by Cobra was an all-inclusive price and therefore, Cobra was not required to be separately reimbursed for the sales tax on bought out items.
The learned counsel for the parties state that the said issue is squarely covered by the decision of this Court in M/s Cobra Instalaciones Y. Servicios, S.A. & M/s Shyam Indus Power Solution Pvt. Ltd. (JV) v. Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Ltd. (HVPNL): O.M.P. (COMM) 597/2020, decided on 25.04.2022, whereby this Court had declined to interfere with an arbitral award delivered by the Arbitral Tribunal, rejecting a similar claim. This Court found that the Arbitral Tribunal’s interpretation of the contract was within its jurisdiction and warranted no interference in these proceedings.
In view of the above and for the reasons stated in M/s Cobra Instalaciones Y. Servicios, S.A. & M/s Shyam Indus Power Solution Pvt. Ltd. (JV) v. Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Ltd. (HVPNL) (supra), the petitions are dismissed.