JUDGMENT

1. All these appeals have been filed by appellant-non-claimant Union of India through the General Manager North Western Railway, Jaipur (hereafter 'the Northern Railways') invoking the jurisdiction of High Court under Section 37(1)(c) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereinafter "the A&C Act of 1996") assailing the order dated 21-11-2016 passed by the Additional District Judge, No.1, Jaipur Metropolitan, Jaipur under Section 34 of the A&C Act of 1996 to set aside the arbitral award dated 17-7- 2010 passed by the Sole Arbitrator in favour of respondent claimant firms (hereafter 'the claimant firms').

Since in all these appeals the impugned order and arbitral awards are verbatim involving common issues, hence, with consent of learned counsel for both parties, these appeals were heard together and would stand decided by this common order. SB Civil Misc. Appeal No.971/2017 is taken as a lead case.

2. Relevant facts which may be recapitulated succinctly are that Northern Railways in the year 1992-93, during undertaking the process of conversion of the Railway track from meter gauge to broad gauge, awarded a contract to claimants for supply and stacking of 21000 cum 6