1. This is a petition under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (‘Act’) by Lift and Shift India Pvt. Ltd. challenging an Award dated 4th November, 2008 passed by the sole Arbitrator in the disputes arising out of the award of a contract by the Respondent Central Warehousing Corporation (‘CWC’) to Natwar Parikh Industries Ltd. (‘NPIL’) by a letter dated 11th June, 1993.

2. At the outset, it requires to be noted that pursuant to a demerger order dated 11th December, 2006 passed by the High Court of Gujarat in Company Petition No. 204 of 2004 connected with a Company Application No. 493 of 2006 as amended on 4th January 2007, the transport division along with its assets, liabilities and cases of NPIL were demerged and transferred to the Petitioner i.e., Lift and Shift India Pvt. Ltd. with retrospective effect from 1st April, 2006. Accordingly, NPIL which was the claimant in the present arbitration proceedings has been substituted by the Petitioner.

Background facts

3. The above Contract awarded by CWC to NPIL involved handling and transportation of ISO containers and allied services at the Container Yard, Jawaharlal Nehru Port (‘CY, JNP’), Railway Siding Co