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1971 (1) TMI 110 - SC - Indian LawsWhether a contract or a clause of it is incorporated in the award is a question of construction of the award Whether 547 vehicles said' to have been sold to the company under sale:-note 197, dated August 2,/6, 1946? Whether 600 vehicles which had been taken out of Moran Depot for operational purposes were part of the sale under sale-note 160? Whether the amount of such rent was fixed by the umpire without any evidence? Whether the amount of costs awarded by the umpire to the respondents was disproportionate? Held that:- This is not a case where the umpire, in the words of Lord Dunedin, "tied himself down to a legal proposition" which on the face of the award was unsound. The award ,makes it clear in so many words that he took into account the entire evidence, including the documents relied on by counsel and then only came to the conclusion that it did not assist the company in its contention as to the scope of the sales. Once it is found that he was competent to decide the dispute as to whether the said 547 vehicles were not the subject-matter of the sale and 291 of them were removed unauthorisedly, he must, to do justice between the parties in respect of disputes referred to him, order the company either to return them or to pay compensation for them. Since the first course was not possible after all these years, the second was the only and the obvious course. The dispute raised by the respondents that 291 vehicles were not included in the sale was: co-extensive with and connected with the dispute that the company was bound to return them if it was found that they were not covered by the sale. On this reasoning it is not possible to say that the umpire went beyond his jurisdiction either in rejecting the company's claim No. VI or in accepting the corresponding counter-claim No. VI of the respondents. Having held that sale-note 160 covered only those vehicles which were actually lying in Moran Depot on July 10, 1946, it was not incumbent on the umpire to decide the number of operational vehicles outside the depot. Consequently, if he was satisfied that even though the company was not entitled to the said 600 vehicles claimed by it, yet the authorities had delivered a substantial number of them, and for any deficiency, had also delivered non-operational vehicles, there would be no purpose in going into the details of vehicles delivered to the company. Even though, as the judgment of the Trial Court discloses (para 223), there was evidence, both oral and documentary, that the company had collected a number of vehicles lying at places outside the Depot, and the vehicles so collected were recorded by the company, yet the company had withheld the production of those records. In view of these facts it is impossible to say that the umpire had acted without evidence, or that he behaved in the manner of a conciliator, or gave findings on conjectures and surmises. Under the contracts of sale the company was, bound to pay to the Government ground rent and other charges which the Government in its turn was liable to pay. It is, therefore, not correct to say that the umpire could award only that amount which the Government had actually paid and that the umpire should, therefore, have taken an account from the Government. It was never the case of the company that the Government had claimed ground rent higher than the compensation it was liable to pay. It appears from the award-that the umpire fixed the amount of costs after considering the statements of expenses incurred by the parties for the hearing before him tendered by the respective counsel for the parties. Considering the huge amounts claimed by the parties, the volume of evidence, both oral and documentary, adduced by them, the number of days occupied in recording that evidence and in arguing the case, we are not prepared to say that the discretion which the umpire exercised in the matter of costs was exercised in breach of any legal provision or unreasonably which can justify the Court's intervention. Appeal dismissed
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