Substantial delay in pronouncing an arbitral award undermines justice and can be grounds for setting aside the award under public policy considerations.

JUDGMENT :

JASMEET SINGH, J.

1. The present petition is filed under section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“1996 Act”) assailing the Arbitral Award dated 27.11.2017 passed by the learned Sole Arbitrator wherein all the 16 claims raised by the petitioner were rejected.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

2. M/s GL Event Services and M/s Meroform (India) Pvt. Ltd. formed a consortium and signed a Consortium Agreement dated 19.05.2009 to bid for a tender related to the Commonwealth Games 2010, which were scheduled to be held in Delhi in October, 2010.The consortium formed a Joint Venture Company namely GL Litmus Events Pvt. Ltd. i.e. the petitioner, in pursuance of Clause 1 of Annexure - A of the Consortium Agreement.

3. The responsibility of organizing the Commonwealth Games Projects for Design Built Maintenance and Rental Contract for Temporary Accommodation using Tensile Fabric at Commonwealth Games Village was assigned to the respondent. Pursuant to this, the respondents invited applications for short-listing suitable organization/companies for providing Games Overlays/ temporary fitments on Turnkey basis and for executing works under Commonwealth Games Projects, through a Global Tender, published in various newspapers.

4. The petitioner submitted its bid in the said tender and subsequently, the respondent accepted the bid vide its Letter of Acceptance dated 02.03.2010 to the petitioner. As per the said Letter of Acceptance, the date of the commencement of the Execution of work under the aforesaid Project was fixed as 02.03.2010 and the Work was to be completed in three Phases. As per the condition stipulated in the Letter of Acceptance, the petitioner was submitted two Performance BankGuarantees equal to 5% of the tendered amount, which amounted to a sum of Rs. 2,06,89,513/-.

5. Thereafter, the respondent vide its letter dated 15.03.2010, entered into an Agreement dated 12.04.2010 under the aforesaid project, namely, “Design Built Maintenance and Rental Contract for Temporary Accommodation using Tensile Fabric at Commonwealth Games Village” with the petitioner. The essence of this Agreement was providing certain identified goods and services on a “rental” basis for a definite period of time. Payment schedule for all the three phases was stipulated in Annexure II in the said Agreement.

6. The entire Project work was to be completed in three phases. For Phase I, the date of completion for structure type A, A’, B, B’ & C was 120 days from the date of its issue and for other remaining structures, 150 days from the date of commencement, i.e. 2.3.2010 as per the Letter of Acceptance. For Phase II, the date of completion was 20^th October 2010. Phase III of the Project was to be completed by 24^th December 2010. For the sake of perusal, relevant portion from the said Agreement is extracted below:-

7. Under the said Agreement, the respondent had provided a Schedule of Quantities, which contained the description of items and the quantities and units required and the total amount for every item. For the said Schedule, the petitioner raised Bill of Quantities (BOQs), which also contained the description of the items supplied, quantities and the price for such items. These items included dining halls, resident centres, religious centres, drivers lounge, police posts and watch towers, security fences, sauna, amongst other items