Reference Under NHAI Act Dismissed For Default, Party Should Challenge Award Under Section 34 , Not By Writ : Patna High Court

Facts

The respondent (NHAI) had acquired the land of the petitioner after classifying it as 'Developing Land' for the construction of Chhapra-Gopalganj Highway.

Disagreeing with the amount of compensation awarded by the respondent authority, the petitioner preferred a reference under Section 3(G)(5) of the NHAI Act before the arbitrator. However, the petitioner failed to appear before the Arbitrator on number of dates, resultantly, the arbitrator dismissed the reference vide an order dated 23.09.2022. Aggrieved thereby, the petitioner filed an application for restoration of reference.

The arbitrator held that it did not have the power to restore dismissed reference. Consequently, the petitioner filed a writ petition before the High Court.

Submissions by the Parties

The respondent objected to the maintainability of the petition on the following grounds:

• The writ is not maintainable as the petitioner has the option of challenging the award under the provisions of NHAI Act.

Analysis by the Court

The Court observed that the reference was dismissed for non-prosecution as the petitioner failed to appear on number of dates and the appeal was dismissed by the arbitrator by observing that it did not have the power to restore the dismissed reference.

The Court held that writ petition is not maintainable to challenge an order of Arbitrator dismissing reference under NHAI Act for default. It held that the aggrieved party should challenge the award under Section 34 of the Act.

The Court granted liberty to the petitioner to avail the statutory remedy and disposed of the petition.

Case Title: Murari Prasad v. The National Highway Authority of India, Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No. 15938 of 2023

Date: 19.04.2024

Counsel for the Petitioner: Mr. Rajani Ranjan, PD. Singh

Counsel for the Respondent: Mr. Sajid Salim Khan

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