1. Heard Mr. Himanshu Kumar Mehta, Senior counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant along with Mrs. Manjushri Patra, Advocate.

2. Heard Mr. Rajeev Ranjan, senior counsel appearing on behalf of the sole respondent along with Mr. Manish Mishra, Advocate.

3. This Arbitration Appeal has been filed against the judgment dated 21.12.2017, passed in Misc. Case No. 5/2006 by Civil Judge (Senior Division No. 1) Singhbhum East at Jamshedpur whereby the petition filed under Section 34 read with Section 16(6) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 has been dismissed and the award dated 20.12.2005 published by the sole Arbitrator, Dr. C.K. Singh, retired Engineer in Chief, PWD, Jharkhand has been upheld.

ARGUMENTS OF THE APPELLANT

4. Counsel for the appellant during the course of hearing has confined his argument only to the ground, which was also raised by the appellant before the learned court below, that the award has been passed in contravention of Section 24 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. It is the specific case of the appellant that the State of Jharkhand was never given an opportunity to make oral arguments and adduced evidence. The counsel for the appellant subm