Supreme Court: Application for extension of the time period for passing an arbitral award - maintainable even after the expiry of the twelve-month or the extended six-month period.

Supreme Court has held that an application for extension of the time period for passing an Arbitral Award under Section 29A(4) read with Section 29A(5) of The Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996, is maintainable even after the expiry of the twelve-month or the extended six-month period, as the case may be. The while providing a guiding principle for courts stated that while adjudicating such extension applications courts have to be guided by the principle of sufficient cause and observations made in the judgment.