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22. The scope of power of Civil Court under Section 34 is no more res-integra, in view of the decision of Hon'ble Supreme Court in McDermott International Inc Vs Burn Standard Company Limited5. In the said decision and the decisions that followed, the Hon'ble Supreme Court held that in a petition under Section 34 of the Act, 1996, the Court cannot correct errors of Arbitrator. It can only quash the award. Paragraphs 51 and 52 of McDermott International Inc read as under:

"52. The 1996 Act makes provision for the supervisory role of courts, for the review of the arbitral award only to ensure fairness. Intervention of the court is envisaged in few circumstances only, like, in case of fraud or bias by the arbitrators, violation of natural justice, etc. The court cannot correct errors of the arbitrators. It can only quash the award leaving the parties free to begin the arbitration again if it is desired. So, the scheme of the provision aims at keeping the supervisory role of the court at minimum level and this can be justified as parties to the agreement make a conscious decision to exclude the court's jurisdiction by opting for arbitration as they prefer the expediency and finality offered by it."

Here again, it is important to note that it is the opinion of the Arbitral Tribunal which counts in order to eliminate the grounds for setting aside the award, which may be indicated by the court hearing the Section 34 application.

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19. The statutory scheme under Section 34 of the Arbitration Act, 1996 is in keeping with the UNCITRAL Model Law and the legislative policy of minimal judicial interference in arbitral awards. xxxx

41. As has been pointed out by us hereinabove, McDermott [McDermott International Inc. v. Burn Standard Co. Ltd., (2006) 11 SCC 181] has been followed by this Court in Kinnari Mullick [Kinnari Mullick v. Ghanshyam Das Damani, (2018) 11 SCC 328 : (2018) 5 SCC (Civ) 106] . Also, in Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd. v. Navigant Technologies (P) Ltd. [Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd. v. Navigant Technologies (P) Ltd., (2021) 7 SCC 657] , a recent judgment of this Court also followed McDermott [McDermott International Inc. v. Burn Standard Co. Ltd., (2006) 11 SCC 181] stating that there is no power to modify an arbitral award under Section 34 as follows : (Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam case [Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd. v. Navigant Technologies (P) Ltd., (2021) 7 SCC 657] , SCC p. 676, para 44) "44. In law, where the court sets aside the award passed by the majority members of the Tribunal, the underlying disputes would require to be decided afresh in an appropriate proceeding. Under Section 34 of the Arbitration Act, the court may either dismiss the objections filed, and uphold the award, or set aside the award if the grounds contained in sub-sections (2) and (2-A) are made out. There is no power to modify an arbitral award."

42. It can therefore be said that this question has now been settled finally by at least 3 decisions [McDermott International Inc. v. Burn Standard Co. Ltd., (2006) 11 SCC 181] , [Kinnari Mullick v. Ghanshyam Das Damani, (2018) 11 SCC 328 : (2018) 5 SCC (Civ) 106] , [Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd. v. Navigant Technologies (P) Ltd., (2021) 7 SCC 657] of this Court. Even otherwise, to state that the judicial trend appears to favour an interpretation that would read into Section 34 a power to modify, revise or vary the award would be to ignore the previous law contained in the 1940 Act; as also to ignore the fact that the 1996 Act was enacted based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, 1985 which, as has been pointed out in Redfern and Hunter on International Arbitration, makes it clear that, given the limited judicial interference on extremely limited grounds not dealing with the merits of an award, the "limited remedy" under Section 34 is coterminous with the "limited right", namely, either to set aside an award or remand the matter under the circumstances mentioned in Section 34 of the Arbitration Act, 1996."