Mr. Vibhu Bakhru, J.

1. The Army Welfare Housing Organisation (hereafter ‘AWHO’) has filed the present petition under Section 14 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereafter ‘the Act’), inter alia, praying as under:

“In the premise it is most respectfully prayed that this Hon’ble Court may the pleased to declare, hold and direct that:

(a) The Sole Arbitrator having been rendered ‘de jure/functus officio’ on and after 10 October 2015 on account of the Petitioner declining to accord/grant consent for enlargement/extension of time to publish his award, and having lost mandate under Section 14(1)(a) of the Act cannot proceed with the adjudication of the disputes between the Petitioner and the Respondent as directed vide Arbitrators order dated 21 December 2016;”

2. The arbitration clause between the parties expressly provides that the arbitrator will make and publish his award within a period of four months of entering upon the reference. AWHO asserts that since the said period has elapsed, the arbitrator no longer enjoys the mandate to proceed with the arbitration proceedings. The respondent (hereafter ‘MKAPL’) disputes the above contention and contends that AWHO by