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3. The controversy is with regard to the application of the amended provisions of the said Act. The amendments to, inter alia, Sections 34 and 36 of the said Act were brought about by the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015 (hereinafter referred to as ‗the Amending Act') with retrospective effect from 23.10.2015. It is the case of the petitioners that the petitions under Section 34 of the said Act would be governed by the unamended provisions of, inter alia, Sections 34 and 36 and, therefore, the petitioners would have the right of an automatic stay on the filing of the petitions under Section 34 of the said Act. On the other hand, the respondents argue that the amended provisions would apply and, therefore, there would be no question of any automatic stay and that it was well within the powers of the learned single Judge to have required the petitioners to make a deposit of Rs 2.7 crores and to direct that in case such a deposit was not made, the petitions under Section 34 of the said Act would be liable to be dismissed.

8. It was submitted in the context of Section 6 of the General Clauses Act that a repeal of an enactment would not affect any right acquired or accrued under the repealed enactment, unless a different intention appears in the repealing Act. It was contended that Section 26 of the Amending Act does not express any intention of retrospective application prior to 23.10.2015. It was further submitted that under the old provision, there was no requirement for a party objecting to the award and seeking the setting aside of the award to separately ask for stay of the award. The mere filing of the petition under Section 34 of the said Act entailed an automatic stay of the enforcement of the award. That vested right of automatic stay is no longer available under the new Section 36. This, according to the learned counsel for the petitioners, would operate only prospectively, that is, to arbitral proceedings commenced after 23.10.2015 and not to arbitrations commenced prior to 23.10.2015.

12. In this backdrop, it was submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioners that substantive rights of the petitioners have been affected by the amendments brought about by the Amending Act. For instance, the new provision of Section 34 restricts the scope for challenge to an award as compared to the earlier provisions of Section 34. Secondly, the new Section 36 takes away the right of automatic stay which existed under the old Section 36. This is so as now a party has to seek a stay by way of an application under Section 36(2) of the new provisions and conditions could be imposed on the parties even where the court grants a stay of the enforcement of the award.

18. It was also contended that the aid to Section 6 of the General Clauses Act ought not to be resorted to because of the use of the restrictive phrase in Section 26. This implies that the legislature deliberately and intentionally kept the post-arbitral proceedings outside the application of the first part of Section 26 of the Amending Act. It was also contended that the remedy available to a party under Section 34 has not been taken away by the Amending Act and there are only slight changes to Section 34. It was submitted that the only vested right was with regard to the challenge to an arbitral award which has remained intact. Section 36 relates to the enforcement of the award. Even under the unamended provisions, the party in whose favour the award was made was entitled for enforcement of the award after the expiry of the period mentioned in Section 34 or after the dismissal of a petition under Section 34. It was contended that the disability of the party in favour of whom the award was made in executing the award during the pendency of the petition under Section 34 under the unamended provision only provided an interim relief and the same cannot be said to be a vested or accrued substantive right. It was further contended that, in any event, the interim relief has not been completely taken away and only the stay of enforcement of an award has been made a subject matter of an order of the court in place of an automatic stay.