Govt opposes every arbitral award, wastes court time: HC

The Delhi High Court today rapped the government for challenging every arbitral award irrespective of whether there was any merit in their case, leading to gross wastage of judicial time and public money.
"There is not a single case where an arbitral award is not appealed by them (government bodies), irrespective of its merits," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Anu Malhotra said.
Maintaining that "we waste a lot of judicial time on these", the bench said "these matters not only pressurise the courts but also lead to gross waste of public money."
Suggesting that an "in-house mechanism" be put in place for mediation and negotiation, it asked "why bring everything into a long drawn legal battle right after a long drawn arbitral award," as it referred to several pleas against arbitral awards that were filed in courts by the government.

It also referred to appeals by the government in cases where it was unsuccessful in getting the award set aside.
Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that usually the amount or quantum of the arbitral award was "so huge" that the officials of the government bodies do not want to take the responsibility of paying it without an order from the court.
The observations by the court came during the hearing of one such matter where the National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd has appealed against a single judge's order ruling against it in a plea by a private company for execution of an arbitral award.