Judgment

V.N. Khare, J.-The respondent here­in has a telephone connection. It appears that a certain dispute arose in respect of the bills submitted by the appellants towards telephone charges. Consequently, the matter was referred to an arbitrator under Section 7-B of the Indian Tele­graph Act, 1885 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”). On 20-8-1992, the arbitrator entered into the reference and on 18-12-1992, he gave a non-speaking award. This award was challenged by the respondents by means of a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution before the Punjab & Haryana High Court. A Division Bench of the High Court having found that the award does not contain any reason, set aside the award and remitted the matter back to the arbitrator for giving a speaking award. It is against this judgment, the Union of India is in appeal.

2. Learned counsel appearing for the appellants urged that in view of the decision in the case of M.L. Jaggi v. Mahanagar Telephones Nigam Ltd.1 , the requirement of giving reasons in the award by the arbitra­tor has to be applied prospectively and for that reason the judgment under appeal deserves to be set aside. In brief, the argument is that a non