A single bench of the Delhi High Court
("Court") in the matter between
Municipal Corporation of Delhi v. Natraj Construction
Company, while dealing with an appeal filed under Section 37
of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996
("Arbitration Act"), recently held that
in light of the provisions of Section 28 of the Indian Contract
Act, 1872 ("Contract Act"), parties
under an arbitration agreement cannot be permitted to restrict the
period of limitation for invoking arbitration, in contravention to
the limitation period provided by law under the Limitation Act,
1963 ("Limitation Act").
The bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri noted that the limitation
period for invoking arbitration under an arbitration agreement was
three years, as prescribed under Article 137 of the Limitation Act.
The Court therefore held that any party to an arbitration agreement
cannot be permitted to rely on the relevant clauses of an
arbitration agreement in order to restrict the period of
