JUDGMENT :

1. This is an appeal filed by the claimant/award holder against the order passed by the District Judge, Kaushambi dated January 15, 2008, wherein the appeal was partly allowed and the rate of interest awarded by the Arbitrator was reduced from 14% to 6% per annum.

2. Counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant submits that the Court does not have the power to modify an award and to buttress his arguments reliance has been placed on the judgment s of the Supreme Court in the case of Project Director Vs. M. Hakeem reported in 2021 (9) SCC 1 and in S.V. Samudram Vs. State of Karnataka & Anr. in Civil Appeal No. 8067 of 2019 dated January 4, 2024. Specific reference is placed on paragraph no.46 of the judgment in Project Manager (Supra), which is quoted below:-

"46. Quite obviously if one were to include the power to modify an award in Section 34, one would be crossing the Lakshman Rekha and doing what, according to the justice of a case, ought to be done. In interpreting a statutory provision, a Judge must put himself in the shoes of Parliament and then ask whether Parliament intended this result. Parliament very clearly intended that no power of modification of an award exis