Arbitral awards must be honored in full, including accrued interest, and obligations remain until full payment is made, even if part payments have occurred.

JUDGMENT

1. Decree holder has filed the present petition under the provisions of Section 36 (1) of Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 read with Order XXI Rule 11 CPC with regard to arbitral award dated 08.01.2019 passed by the learned Arbitrator.

2. The grounds raised in the present petition by the decree holder are that in case Ref No. DAC/1600/03-17, titled as M/s. IPEX Infrastructure (P.) Ltd. Versus Hindustan Construction Company Ltd., an arbitration Award dated 08.01.2019 was passed by the learned arbitrator, whereunder decree holder was awarded amount of Rs.8,35,33,837/- with future interest at the rate of 12% p.a. from the date of award till the date of payment of the awarded amount. The Award in question was challenged by the judgment debtor under Section 34 of the Act, which was dismissed by this Court vide order dated 20.05.2019 [in OMP (COMM) 208/2019]. Thereafter, decree holder issued a statutory notice dated 27.05.2019 to the judgment debtor under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 demanding the payment in terms of awarded amount. Since judgment debtor failed to make the payment, therefore, decree holder filed a petition under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai, against the judgment debtor, wherein it claimed an amount of Rs.8,81,51,219/- from judgment debtor towards awarded amount along with interest @12% p.a. and Rs.8,00,000/- as cost of arbitration proceedings. In the meanwhile, appeal preferred by the judgment debtor under Section 37 of the Act (against dismissal of petition under Section 34 of the Act) was also dismissed vide order dated 30.08.2019 [in FAO (OS) (COMM) 207 of 2019].

3. During pendency of petition filed by the decree holder before the NCLT, judgment debtor preferred a writ petition [WP (C) No. 1074/2019] before the Hon'ble Supreme Court challenging Section 87 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 as well as provisions of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, wherein judgment debtor undertook to pay the amount of Rs.8.81 Crores within a period of 12 weeks to the decree holder and also sought a stay before NCLT at the stage of pronouncement of judgment. However, since judgment debtor failed to pay the agreed amount within the stipulated period, as undertaken before the Hon'ble Supreme Court, decree holder filed a contempt petition [Contempt Pet. (C) No. 85/2020] against the judgment debtor. The said petition was disposed of by the Hon'ble Supreme Court vide order dated 07.02.2020 holding that prima facie contempt was made by the judgment debtor and last opportunity was granted to make payment within two weeks in compliance of order dated 13.09.2019.

4. Pursuant to order dated 07.02.2020 passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the contempt petition, judgment debtor made payment of Rs.8,81,51,219/- on 19.02.2020 to the decree holder.

5. Pertinently, the grievance raised in the present petition by the decree holder is that the payment towards the arbitral Award was made by the judgment debtor on 19.02.2020 and thereby, judgment debtor was under the obligation to pay interest @12% p.a. on the awarded amount till then, in terms of the Award. However, payment of Rs.8,81,51,219/- made by judgment debtor did not include interest till 19.02.2020.

6. During the course of hearing, learned counsel for decree holder drew attention of this Court to Para-20 of the petition, wherein the calculation of amount payable till 19.02.2020 has been spelt out. The relevant portion thereof reads as under: