Arbitral awards passed under Arbitration Act can be set aside only by civil court exercising statutory powers and not by administrative authorities unilaterally

ORDER

Appellants/Union of India have filed this writ appeal against the order dated 26.4.2022 whereby the writ petition (W.P. No.25710/2021) filed by the respondents/petitioners has been allowed by directing the appellants to release the amount of compensation in terms of award dated 30.11.2011 within a period of six months.

The facts of the case, in a nutshell, are stated as under :

1. Late Madanlal Vijayvargiya was in possession of Bungalow No.153, 154 and 154A situated at Mall Road, Mhow, District Indore since 1937. The said bungalows are constructed on land belonging to the Ministry of Defence, Govt. of India. In the year 2009, the Ministry of Defence directed Defence Estate Officer Mhow cant. (DEO) to resume the aforesaid three bungalows. According to the petitioners, they are legal heirs of Late Madanlal Vijayvargiya and after his death, they were in possession of the said bungalows. They were forcibly dispossessed from the said bungalows by the appellants/authorities without payment of any compensation. They approached this Court by way of W.P. Nos. 7606/2009 and 7605/2009. By way of a common order dated 22.10.2010 the writ petitions were disposed of by directing the Competent Authority of the Union of India to assess the fair value of the bungalows and pay the petitioners instead of resumption the said bungalows.

2. Vide letter dated 18.12.2009 the Principal Director, Govt. of India, DE, Central Command, Lucknow in the exercise of powers directed to constitute Arbitration Committee to assess the amount of compensation to be paid to the legal heirs of HORs of bungalow Nos. 153, 154 and 154-A, Mall Road, Mhow. It was further directed that the Chairman of the Arbitration Committee would ascertain the name of the nominees of the legal heirs of the HOR and the Arbitration Committee would follow the procedure prescribed in the Appendix attached with the aforesaid letter. The terms of the reference of the Committee appointed were confined to determine the value of the authorized constructions standing on the land resumed excluding the land. It was also made clear that the Committee in no case will entertain the dispute as to claim title to the land. The legal heirs of the HOR i.e. writ petitioner never claimed the title over the Government land. They were demanding only compensation instead of resumption of their bungalows.

3. In compliance with the letter dated 18.12.2009 a three- members Committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Sub Divisional Officer. The other members of the Committee were nominees of the Station Commandant and the nominee of the bungalow (HOR) i.e. writ petitioners. The three members arbitration Committee initiated the proceedings to assess the value of the superstructure over the land i.e. bungalow Nos. 153, 154 and 154-A. The Committee obtained the valuation report from Central Public Works Department (CPWD) in respect of all three bungalows. The valuation submitted by the writ petitioners was rejected by the Committee. The Committee after deducting depreciation @ 50% has assessed the compensation payable to the writ petitioners as under :

Bungalow No. 153 : Rs.44,08,193/-

Bungalow No. 154 : Rs.48,08,837/-

Bungalow No. 154-A : Rs.38,40,610/-

Total : Rs.1,30,57,640/-

along with interest @ 12% per annum from 1.4.2009 till its actual payment.

4. After the aforesaid passing of the award, writ petitioners initiated the execution proceedings before the Civil Court at Indore. The appellants did not challenge the Award in accordance with the law. The execution proceedings are still pending in which on various occasions, the Defence Estate Officer did appear and gave an underta