Report No. 76

4.39. Section 14(2) and case of death of arbitrator-Proposed section 14(2A).-

Under section 14(2), an award has to be filed by the arbitrator or by the umpire. The case where the arbitrator or umpire dies without tiling an award or without authorising any person to file it, is not covered by the section. This was described as a "lacuna" in the Act in a Calcutta case1 In that case, the court acted under its inherent jurisdiction under section 151, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908,and made an order for filing the award within a month, from the date of judgment against the respondent.

1. Panchanan Dev v. Union of India, AIR 1959 Cal 84 (87), para. 14 (Chakravarty, C.J. and S.C. Lahiri, J.).

4.40. It was not disputed in that case that the umpire had made an award; he, however, did not file the award or authorise anyone to do so, and instead made it over to the respondent. The appellant took out a notice of motion under section 14(2), but before the date for the notice of motion arrived, the umpire died. Hence the difficulty that arose.

4.41. English law.-

It may be noted that this problem does not arise in England, as there is no section in the English Act dealing with filing of the award by the arbitrator. The reason is, that under that Act, the award is enforceable as a judgments 1by leave of the High Court or any Judge thereof.

1. Section 26, English Act of 1950.