1. By this petition filed under section 34 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996, the petitioner has impugned the arbitral award dated 28th April, 2017 passed by the learned arbitrator allowing certain claims made by the respondents.

2. The respondents have raised an issue of limitation in the petitioner's filing this petition allegedly beyond the period of limitation prescribed under section 34(3) of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996. This Court has thus heard the learned counsel for the parties on the issue of limitation raised by the respondents first. Some of the relevant facts for the purpose of deciding the issue of limitation raised by the respondents are as under:

3. The petitioner lodged the Commercial Arbitration Petition (Lodging) 334 of 2017 in this Court on 26th July, 2017 inter-alia praying for setting aside the impugned award dated 28th April, 2017 i.e. within a period of three months from the date of service of the signed copy of the award from the learned arbitrator. By an Arbitration & Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015, section 34(5) of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996 was inserted, which reads thus:

(5) An application under this secti