The power conferred on the Court under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 is to set aside the award on specified grounds and does not include the power to modify the award.

1. The respondent has entered appearance in the stage of admission itself.

2. As the matter involves a pure question of law regarding the scope of authority conferred on the Court under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, the appeal can be disposed of at the stage of admission itself. Hence, the learned counsel for the appellant and the learned Special Government Pleader appearing for the respondent have been asked to make their submissions on the above said question and accordingly, they have made their submissions.

3. Pursuant to a dispute regarding the settlement of bills between the appellant and the respondent, as per the arbitration clause in the contract, the matter was referred for arbitration and the arbitrator passed an award on 03.06.2006 holding the respondent herein liable to pay a sum of Rs.2,01,35,803/- together with an interest at the rate of 18% p.a. Aggrieved by the said award, the respondent herein filed an application under Section 34 of the Arbitration and conciliation Act before the learned Principal District Judge, Cuddalore in Arbitration O.P.No.93 of 2006 to set aside the arbitral award.

4. The learned Principal District Judge, after hearing and consideration of the materials, referring to Clause 43.1 of the General Conditions of contract, held that the contract provided for payment of interest at the rate of 10% p.a alone on belated settlement of bills and the award of interest at the rate of 18% by the arbitrator was not only against the said contractual clause but also against the public policy. Consequent to such a finding, the learned Principal District Judge, Cuddalore chose to pass the impugned order modifying the award regarding the amount payable to the appellant herein. The operative portion of the order of the learned Principal District Judge reads as follows:

"Therefore the amount of award of claims arrives at Rs.9506748.00. The serial No.4 and 5 at page 81 of the award is struck down. Hence the sum arrived under Column I and III is Rs.7367491.00 and this amount only shall bear interest at 10% per annum from the date of claim till the date of payment/realization.

The point is answered accordingly as indicated above.

In the result the petition is partly allowed without costs."

It is pointed out that the operative portion of the award as found in the order of the lower Court as found in Paragragh 12 of its order is extracted, as it is, without any correction.

5. A reading of the above said order of the Court below will show that the Court below has assumed appellate / revisional power over the award of the arbitrator. What is contemplated under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 is that the Court may set aside the arbtiral award on the grounds specified in the said section. It does not contemplate exercise of any appellate or revisional power, apart from considering whether the award has to be set aside on any one of the grounds enumerated in Section 34 of the Act. It is trite that an application under Section 34 should not be construed to be an appeal and the Court dealing with an application under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 should not be construed to be an appellate Court or revisional Court. As such, the question that arises for decision in this appeal is "whether the Court which is seized of an application under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act can set aside the arbitral award in part?." In other words, "whether the Court can modify the arbitral award?"

6. A plain reading of Section 34 will make it clear that the answer shall be in the negative. Nowhere in the Section it has been contemplated that the Court in which an application under Section 34 has been filed shall have any of the powers of the appellate Court, especially to set aside the award in part or to modify the award. On the other hand, the power conferred on the Court is to see whether the award has to be set aside on s