A reputed Civil Engineering and Construction Company recognized for its expertise in the construction of hydroelectricity projects has failed to successfully sustain their claim amount of Rs. 500 Crores against the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Limited (“NHPC”), a leading hydropower generation Public Sector Enterprise owned by the Ministry of Power, Government of India over a dispute arising for civil and hydromechanical works of a Hydro Electric Project situated in Parbati Valley, Himachal Pradesh.
The said claim was raised in arbitral proceedings initiated by the construction company against NHPC Limited before a three-member arbitral tribunal. The proceedings before the tribunal commenced on 18.01.2019 and the final award was rendered on 29.01.2022. The award was bifurcated into two parts wherein the majority award was given by the technical members of the tribunal, whereas the dissenting award was given by the sole judicial member of the tribunal.
NHPC Limited was represented by the L&L Partners litigation team lead by partner Nakul Sachdeva, Damandeep S. Bhalla, managing associate, Ambika Pratiyush Swain, managing associate and Tushar Behl, associate. The entire mandate was handled in-house without the assistance of any senior counsels.
We reached out to Mr. Nakul Sachdeva who was quoted saying:
“We are in the process of reviewing the awards. However, the majority tribunal has granted only 1/5th of the claim amount. What is interesting is the dissenting award rendered by the sole judicial member granting a meagre amount of Rs. 12 Crores against the claimed amount of Rs. 500 Crores. Currently we are in the process of reviewing the awards and we will decide the future course as available under the law after reviewing both the awards in entirety”.
The L&L Litigation team led by Partner, Nakul Sachdeva representing the Respondent, NHPC Limited has been successful in bringing down the INR 500 Crore Claim to INR 83.37 Crores after the majority arbitral award was passed by the three-member Arbitral Tribunal on 29.01.2022 after 36 months of the notice invoking arbitration.