HAZEL MERCANTILE LTD vs INDIAN OIL CORPORATION LTD

Judgment text excerpt

$~29 * IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI % Date of decision: 22.04.2026 + O.M.P. (COMM) 36/2023 & I.A. 1770/2023 HAZEL MERCANTILE LTD .....Petitioner Through: Mr. Bishwajit Dubey, Mr. Akshit Awasthi & Mr. Vivek Sharma, Advs. versus INDIAN OIL CORPORATION LTD .....Respondent Through: Ms. Vineeta Meharia, Senior Adv. with Mr. Amit Meharia, Ms. Tannishtha Singh & Mr. Sambhav, Advs. CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AVNEESH JHINGAN AVNEESH JHINGAN, J. (ORAL) 1. This petition is filed under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (for short „the Act‟) for setting aside of the arbitral award dated 01.10.2022. 2. The brief facts are that the respondent/Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as „IOCL‟) vide tender dated 15.01.2018 invited bids for supply of 26,000 MT of Acetic Acid (for brevity „the acid‟). The petitioner was the successful bidder and a purchase order (for short „PO‟) dated 25.05.2018 was issued for supply of 13,000 MT at the rate of Rs. 50,500/- per MT. The supply was to be made over a period of one year from the date of first supply or till completion of the total ordered quantity, whichever was earlier. The PO stipulated delivery to be on a staggered basis as per the schedule to be issued by Signature Not Verified Signed By:HONEY O.M.P. (COMM) 36/2023 Page 1 of 8 ARORA Signing Date:24.04.2026 16:10:13 IOCL and the required quantity of the material was to be supplied within four to seven days of the intimation. The petitioner made the first supply on 04.06.2018 and the contract was to expire on 03.06.2019. Till 02.02.2019, the petitioner supplied 6504.42 MT of acid in compliance with the schedules issued by IOCL. The plant of IOCL was shut down in February, 2019 due to technical reasons and resumed operations on 28.07.2019. IOCL