Tribunal finds RWITC guilty of breach of contract
Orders Club to pay `82.77L to catering firm
An Arbitral Tribunal has found fault with the Royal Western India Turf Club Ltd (RWITC), the licensed club to operate horse racing in Mumbai and Pune for breach of agreement with the caterers of the Turf Club in Pune.
The tribunal, appointed by the Bombay high court, under the chairmanship of Justice Mohit S. Shah, directed RWITC to pay an award amount of `82,77,000 to the firm named “18 Degrees North Ltd, Pune” which came forward in 2015 to run the Specialty Restaurant at Victoria room and permit room. The contract was terminated in 2016, as even after a year’s wait, the Turf Club could not obtain permissions and licences to run the two.
Reasoning that having only catering services was economically illadvised, representatives of 18 Degrees North firm, Smitha Chinoy and Ratan Dinshaw Chinoy terminated the agreement. This led the Turf Club to claim around `1.15 crore from the catering firm towards overheads like electricity charges, water bill, staff salaries, fees, among other clauses.
In a counter, the catering firm claimed `1.93 crore, which included deposits of security and earnest money deposits. It also claimed 16 per cent annual interest for the said amount with effect from 2016.
Following the dispute, the Bombay high court referred the matter to the Arbitral Tribunal.
After hearing both contentions, Justice Shah passed an award on December 22, in which he rejected the claims of RWITC and partly allowed those of 18 Degrees North by allowing to the extent of `82.77 lakh with 10 per cent compound interest from the date of the award to the settlememnt.
Meanwhile, the Turf Club was also directed to pay `10 lakh to the firm as costs for arbitral proceedings. The award amount must be paid within three months from the date of when the award was passed, he said.
◗ THE TRIBUNAL directed RWITC to pay an award amount of `82,77,000 to the firm named ‘Eighteen Degrees North Ltd, Pune’ which came forward in 2015 to run the Specialty Restaurant at Victoria room and permit room