The Court: This is an appeal from a judgment and order dated the 25th of November, 1997 whereby the Hon'ble Justice Amitava Lala refused to set aside an award of Rs. 6,00,000/- passed by the arbitrator S.S. Ganguly, a retired Secretary of the Government of West Bengal.

2. The award is dated the 11th of December, 1996 and is for the said round sum.

3. Payment was directed to be made within three months but no interest from the date of the award was allowed. The counter claim of the appellants was rejected. No order was passed as to costs.

4. Mr. Roychowdhury, appearing for the appellant, has urged two points before us. He first submitted that the arbitrator was compelled to give reasons for his award and, though the award runs into several pages, and contains many sentences, yet it cannot be called a reasoned award. His argument was that on a substantial reading of the award no sufficient reasons for the award of the sum of Rs. 6,00,000/- can be found.

5. The second argument was about interest. In the award a sum of Rs. 1,90,545/- has been awarded by the arbitrator as interest by way of damages. Mr. Roychowdhury argued that because of an express clause contained in the agreement