JUDGMENT

Vibhu Bakhru, J.

1. The appellant has filed the present appeal under Section 37(1)(c) of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereafter `the A&C Act') impugning a judgment dated 17.02.2021 (hereafter `the impugned judgment') passed by the learned Commercial Court (hereafter `the Court') in ARBTN. No.5173/2018. By the impugned judgment, the Court has partly allowed the respondent's application under Section 34 of the A&C Act seeking to set aside the arbitral award dated 19.06.2018 (hereafter `the impugned award').

2. Whilst the Court rejected the respondent's challenge to the amounts awarded against substantive claims, it set aside the impugned award to the extent of pre-award interest on the claims awarded to the appellant.

3. The Court accepted the submissions that the contract between the parties proscribed payment of any pre-award interest, in terms of Clauses 16(2) and 64.5 of the General Conditions of Contract (hereafter `the GCC'), as applicable to the contract in question.

4. The principal question to be addressed in the present appeal is whether the finding of the Court that Clause 16(3) of GCC and/or Clause 64.5 of the GCC, bars pre-award interest, is erro