( 1 ) THE sole Arbitrator Shri P. D. Upadhyaya filed the Award dated August 26, 1988, in the matter of the arbitration between M/s Patel Construction Co. and 0il and Natural Gas Commission in this Court. The Award and the proceedings were taken on record by anorder dated October 28, 1988, and notice of filing of the same was issued to the parties. The Notice was served on the petitioner as well as respondent.

( 2 ) THE respondent, M/s Oil and Natural Gas Commission is a statutory Corporation, established under the Oil and Natural Gas Commission Act, 1959, hereinafter referred to as "the Corporation", invited tenders for civil, structural and plumbing work for C. G. S. cum C. T. F. South Santhal near Mehsana (Gujarat), from approved class of contractors through their engineers, M/s Engineers India Ltd. M/s Patel Construction Company submitted the tender, which after negotiations was accepted vide letter No. 1603/g/08 (II) dated May 15, 1981. The value of the contract was Rs. 75,76,519. 50, as referred to in Clause I of the contract. The time of completion for the work was fixed to be 12 months reckoned from the date of issue of Telegram of Intent i. e. April 18, 1981. The Corporation has further contended that the works defined in the agreement were to be completed/executed in a phased manner, so as to generate the work fronts to other agencies like tank fabrication, mechanical equipments, erection and piping etc. with a view to complete the project as a whole within the stipulated period.

( 3 ) THE Contractor, M/s Patel Construction Company, could not complete the works within the time stipulated because of slippages during the course of execution of the contract, on account of the various deficiencies and defaults on their part. The work lingered on till October 30, 1983, although it is submitted that the time was expressed to be the essence of the contract.

( 4 ) IT is further alleged that certain disputes were raised by the petitioner in their written communication and reference may be made in this regard to the letters dated January 30, 1984 and January 28, 1984 respectively. The letter of January 30, 1984 reads as follows:

"the Site Incharge M/s Engineers India Limited, DSI Shed No. 21 O. N. G. C. Mehsana Sub:- Extended stay compensation Dear Sir, We were awarded the Civil structural and plumbing work for CGS-cum- CTF at South Santhal Project for ONGC near Mehsana vide telex of intent. 18. 4. 91 foranamountofrs. 79,72,262. 62. The said work was to be completed within a period of 12 months reckoned with effect from 18. 4. 81. You are requested to kindly refer to our letter No. PCC/msh/221 dated 28. 1. 84 requesting you for extention of time limit for completion of work without levying any penalty to us. As can we see from our letter under reference the reasons for delayed completion are not attributable to us. The completion of work has been extended beyond the contractual completion period that is for a period of about 22 months beyond the specified time and we had incurred heavy losses by keeping out men and machinery idle at site for no fault of ours. In spite of forceful mobilization in the beginning of the job utilisation of men and machinery could not be proper due to reasons as contained in our letter under reference. The loss suffered for the above work are very heavy and the main reasons for the same are late release of drawings, dispute between the land owners and owner, interrupted power supply, late supply of water etc. We feel that we are justified in asking to compensate for these losses due to extended stay for completing the job at the rate ofrs. 20,000. 00 per week for a period of 93 weeks which works out to be Rs. l8,60,000. 00. The amount of Rs. 20,000. 00 per week has been arrived at by considering the payment for maintaining establishment of labour and equipment, escalation, for labour and material which were required to be maintained at Mehsana site. We would therefore request you to kin