I T C LTD Vs. GEORGE JOSEPH FERNANDES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this application the applicant has prayed that the Registry of this Court be directed to transfer the arbitral award dated 25.6.1996 made by the learned Arbitrator late justice A. C. Gupta, filed in this Court to the principal Senior Civil Judge at Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

(2.) The circumstances under which the application has been made are as under: the applicant and the respondent entered into an agreement with regard to the hiring of applicant's trawlers Ave Maria I and Ave Maria ii. The agreement contains an arbitration clause. Certain disputes arose between the parties pertaining to the subject matter of the agreement. The appellant (ITC Limited) terminated the agreement by notice and followed it up with a suit CS No. 736 of 1978 on the original side of the Calcutta High Court seeking a declaration that the agreements dated 21.3.1977 and 2.2.1978 were illegal and for a decree for the sum of Rs. 39.64 lakhs.

(3.) On 24.4.1979 the applicant filed a petition under section 34 of the Arbitration Act, 1940 praying for stay of the aforesaid suit in view of the Arbitration clause contained in the agreement. The High Court allowed the petition and ordered stay of the suit. An appeal carried before the Division Bench of the Calcutta high Court failed. The applicant carried the matter to this Court by Civil Appeal No. 1795 of 1982. The said appeal was disposed of by a judgment dated 6.2.1989 (Reported in [1989] 2 SCC 1). By this judgment this Court upheld the view of the courts below that the reliefs claimed in the suit other than the question of ab initio illegality of the contract would be arbitrable, since the parties agreed to have disputes arbitrated. This Court disposed of the appeal by the following observation:-