JUDGMENT :

SHEKHAR B. SARAF, J.

1. Heard Sri Sushil Kumar Shukla, learned counsel for the appellants.

2. This is an appeal filed against an order dated March 22, 2024 passed by the Additional District Judge, Court No. 1, Saharanpur in an application filed under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Application Act, 1996 (hereinafter referred to as the “Act”) whereby the said application was dismissed as time barred.

3. Acquisition of the land of the appellants was carried out in the year 2015 and thereafter an arbitration award was passed by the learned Arbitrator/Commissioner, Saharanpur on March 15, 2018. Subsequently, on November 21, 2019, the appellants filed a writ petition before this Court bearing Writ-C No. 4985 of 2020. This writ petition was disposed of by this Court on February 20, 2020 with the following direction:

“Upon perusal of the averments made in the writ petition and the documents appended thereto, it transpires that the petitioners are challenging the validity of the award made under Section 20F(6) of The Railways Act, 1989.

In our opinion, the remedy if any, available to the petitioners against the impugned award is to file an objection under Section 34 of