The award holder can seek interim relief under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 until the complete satisfaction of the award.

JUDGMENT :

Krishnan Ramasamy, J.

1. This Original Application has been filed, seeking interim injunction against the respondents for the relief as sought therein.

2. The applicant has obtained an award passed by the learned Arbitrator vide order dated 28.06.2022, entitling him for a sum of Rs. 4,65,00,000/- as principal amount and also a sum of Rs. 3,10,00,000/- as interest and other incidental charges. Since the respondents and other partners have completed the making Web series called Queen-2 in all languages in the OTT Platform and attempting to release in the month of May, 2023 without making any payments towards the award to the applicant, the applicant has come forward with the present application for the interim relief.

3. Now an interesting issue that crops up for consideration is whether the applicant/award holder can seek interim relief by invoking Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (in short, 'the Act') before this Court, at any time after making of the arbitral award but before it is enforced, in accordance with Section 36 of the Act?

4. Mr. Abdul Hameed, learned Senior Counsel for M/s. Revathi Manivannan, on behalf of the respondents 1 to 3 would submit that the present application is not maintainable due to the reason that the Arbitrator has already passed the final award on 28.06.2022 and the said award is very much enforceable and the applicant herein has also filed Original Petition in O.P. No.556 of 2022 challenging the said award as against the disallowed portion of the claim under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (in short, 'the Act') without filing the Execution Petition. He pointed out that once an arbitral award becomes enforceable, the present application moved under Section 9 of the Act, seeking for grant of interim order is not maintainable and it is not in accordance with Section 9 r/w Section 36 of the Act and filing the application under Section 9 of the Act is not permissible. He would also submit that the award is executable and till date, no stay order was granted by this Court and if at all the applicant is aggrieved, he has to approach the Executing Court for interim order by filing an Execution Petition under Section 38 of the Act and without exercising the same, the applicant filed the present application under Section 9 of the Act when the award is very much available for enforcement. Therefore, he would submit that the present application is not maintainable and he hence prayed for dismissal of the same.

5. In support of his contentions, learned Senior counsel relied upon a of the First Bench of this Court in "Gopuram Enterprises Ltd. Versus M/s. Integrated Finance Company Ltd." in OSA No. 53 of 2021, dated 15.02.2021.

6. On the other hand, R.Murari, learned senior counsel appearing for Mr.S.R. Sundar, learned counsel appearing for the applicant would submit Section 9 of the Act empowers the applicant to move an application for interim orders even after passing the award, but before the enforcement of the award with complete satisfaction under Section 36 of the Act. In the present case, no E.P. has been filed, but O.P. has been filed to challenge the award but no stay has been obtained and in these circumstances, the present OA is well maintainable. In this regard, he relied upon a decision of a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court in "Dirk India Pvt. Ltd. v. Maharashtra State Electricity Generation Company Limited" reported in and also a decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in "Hindustan Construction Company Ltd. Versus Union of India and Others" reported in (2020)17 SCC 324.

7. Heard the learned counsel appearing for the applicant and the learned Senior counsel appearing for the respondents and perused the material available on record.

8. To deal with the present issue, it is appropriate to extract Section 9(1) of the Act which reads as under:

"9. Interim measures, etc., by Court.-

(1) A party may, before or during arbitral proceedings or at any time