The Apex Court on 26.09.2018, in P. RADHA BAI AND ORS. VERSUS P. ASHOK KUMAR AND ANR. allowed the appeals made against the judgment and order passed by the High Court of Judicature at Andhra Pradesh

FACTS: The successor ran a business and in his lifetime had acquired many properties which eventually after his death devolved upon his survivors(Appellant Nos. 1 t- 6 and Respondent Nos. 1& 2) by means of arbitration pertaining to the distribution of property to each party.However, after the subsequent announcement of the award , the Appellants alleged that they had entered into a MoU with the Respondents who had agreed upon to provide some additional properties to Respondent No. 1. Later on, the execution concerning the gift and deed were delayed to a great extend by the appellants while at same time, the stipulated period for challenging the award by arbitration had also lapsed. Following the expiry of the time period, an execution petition was filed whereby the trial court could not uphold the maintainability. On an appeal being made before the High Court , the trial Court’s order was set aside and the execution was held maintainable while remanding the case to the trial court.
The appellants made an application for setting aside the award which was filed by the respondents , which was after 236 days of delay from the date of receipt of the award and was further accompanied by an application for condoning the delay. Subsequently, conciliation took place and a MoU was concluded by the parties. However,yet again there was a failure from the Appellants part in executing the deeds. While the interim application was pending , another petition was filed by the respondents before the trial court for summoning the Sub Registrar for proving the veracity of the MoU with an intention to content the allegations which were raised upon by the appellants connected to the MoU. The trial court dismissed the application relating to the condonation of delay as well as the the interim applications.Being aggrieved by the dismissal, respondents filed petitions, in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh where the case was remanded to the trial court , and hence an appeal was made before the Supreme Court of India with a view to challenge the award.

DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA:
The Apex Court allowed the appeals while concluding that once the award had been received by the commencement of time and disability pertaining to the Limitation Act becomes immaterial. Merely a fraud committed on the part of the appellant does not in anyway affect the right of the respondent in terms of challenging the award considering the facts that entitled the filing of application had been in the knowledge and that it was upon the Respondents for instituting an application that would challenge the award . Thus the judgment and order of the High Court were set aside, along with the order which allowed the condonation of delay.

Full Judgment:

https://www.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2012/32981/32981_2012_Judgement_26-Sep-2018.pdf