H SRINIVAS PAI Vs. H V PAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted. Heard the counsel.

(2.) The first respondent filed a suit for partition in the year 1991. In the said suit, the appellant filed an application for stay of proceedings under Section 34 of the Arbitration Act, 1940 ('old Act' for short). The said application under Section 34 was dismissed on 15.3.1995 on the ground that the appellant had acquiesced to court's jurisdiction. The appeal filed by the appellants, as also a further revision by them, were dismissed in 2000 and 2001.

(3.) The suit, however, continued to be pending and the appellants thought fit to file an application under Section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 ('Act', for short). That application was dismissed by the trial Court by order dated 29.3.2003. Feeling aggrieved, the appellants filed a revision which was referred by a learned single Judge of the High Court to a Division Bench. The Division bench, by order dated 3.11.2008, dismissed the application under Section 8 of the Act but while so doing, observed thus: