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V. Submissions on behalf of the Appellants Shri. K.K. Venugopal, Learned Attorney General for India instructed by Mr. K.R. Sasiprabhu, Advocate represented the Government of India. It was submitted that the enforcement of the Award was liable to be refused on the following principal grounds:

(a) Maintainability of the Petition
(i) The Appellants raised an objection to the maintainability of the application on the ground that the petition for enforcement / execution of the foreign award under Section 47 was barred by limitation.

Noy Vallesina Engineering Spa v Jindal Drugs Limited11 A single judge of the Bombay High Court held that there is no period of limitation provided by any of the Articles in the Schedule to the Limitation Act, for making an application for execution of a foreign award. It was held that the enforcement of a foreign award must take place in two stages. In the first stage, the enforceability of the foreign award would be decided, which would be governed by the residuary provision i.e. Article 137 which provides for 3 years from when the right to apply accrues. After the issue of enforceability of award is determined, the award is deemed to be a decree, and the execution of the award as a deemed decree would be governed by Article 136 which provides a period of 12 years.

(iv) The limitation period for filing the enforcement / execution petition for enforcement of a foreign award in India, would be governed by Indian law. The Indian Arbitration Act, 1996 does not specify any period of limitation for filing an application for enforcement / execution of a foreign award. Section 43 however provides that the Limitation Act, 1963 shall apply to arbitrations, as it applies to proceedings in court.

(xiv) In view of the aforesaid discussion, we hold that the period of limitation for filing a petition for enforcement of a foreign award under Sections 47 and 49, would be governed by Article 137 of the Limitation Act, 1963 which prescribes a period of three years from when the right to apply accrues.

(xv) The application under Sections 47 and 49 for enforcement of the foreign award, is a substantive petition filed under the Arbitration Act, 1996. It is a well- settled position that the Arbitration Act is a self-contained code.26 The application under Section 47 is not an application filed under any of the provisions of Order XXI of the CPC, 1908. The application is filed before the appropriate High Court for enforcement, which would take recourse to the provisions of Order XXI of the CPC only for the purposes of execution of the foreign award as a deemed decree. The bar contained in Section 5, which excludes an application filed under any of the provisions of Order XXI of the CPC, would not be applicable to a substantive petition filed under the Arbitration Act, 1996. Consequently, a party may file an application under Section 5 for condonation of delay, if required in the facts and circumstances of the case.