SC to solve currency poser

The Delhi High Court has left it to the Supreme Court to solve a frequent dispute arising on the conversion rate of currency in an agreement. In this case, a single judge Bench had held that "for the purposes of conversion of US dollars to Indian rupees, the exchange rate as prevalent on the date of the agreement dated (29.06.1982) would be applicable". Two companies, Royal Construction Co and National Projects Construction Corp had undertaken a project in Iraq, whose value was of the order of Iraqi Dinars 7,83,834 converted into US dollars at the agreed rate of exchange of ID 1 = USD 3.37778. Disputes arose because of delay in the project due to the Iran-Iraq war and the matter was referred to arbitration and the award came after two decades. The issue which arose now was whether the conversion rate should be that prevailing at the time of the agreement or at the time of the award. The dispute was taken to the Supreme Court. However, the matter came back to the high court in view of purported ambiguity in the Supreme Court order. The high court, therefore, directed the parties to approach the apex court for a definitive order.