Power To Correct Computation Error U/S 33 Of Arbitration Act Can Be Exercised Suo Moto If No Application Is Filed Within 30 Days: Calcutta HC

The Calcutta High Court bench of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya has held that power to correct computation error in the award under section 33 of the Arbitration Act can be exercised suo moto by the Arbitral Tribunal when no application is filed to this effect within 30 days. Based on the above, the court concluded that “Accordingly, this Court comes to the conclusion that the claimant was entitled to refund of security deposit along with earnest money and the Tribunal was justified in granting the same.” The court further observed that the claim for compensation under the risk and cost principle exceeded the claim of the claimant for security deposit therefore the contractor was liable to pay compensation equal to the security deposit and the respondent acted within its jurisdiction while invoking clause 3 of contractNon-imposition of penal measure is, thus, a non-issue in the context. The court while answering the second question observed that “the Tribunal was justified in awarding risk and cost compensation to the respondent.” The court further said that Clause of sub-section of Section 33 provides inter alia that the Arbitral Tribunal may correct any computation errors and the error pointed out by the respondent pertains to simple calculation. Based on the above, the court observed that no such application having not filed within the statutory 30 days, it was incumbent upon the Arbitral Tribunal to suo moto correct such error, at least as a resultant effect of the correction done by it on the application of the claimant under Section 33 of the 1996 Act.