SUSHMA B CHANDAK Vs. SMC GLOBAL SECURITIES LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This arbitration petition challenges an award passed by a Panel of arbitrators and confirmed by the appellate tribunal in an arbitration reference under Bye-laws, Rules and Regulations of National Stock Exchange of India Ltd.

(2.) The petition is opposed by the Respondent inter alia on the ground that after the declaration of the award, the parties entered into a deed of settlement, under which the Petitioner herein, along with others, agreed to pay Rs.46,25,657.56 in full and final settlement of the award and the Respondent accepted this payment in full and final settlement of all its claims whatsoever, including its debit balance outstanding in UCC No.ZAN0001, which was the subject matter of the arbitration reference. Both parties agreed that no further claims, disputes, actions, by whatever name called, by and between the parties shall lie and the parties would unconditionally and immediately withdraw each and every claim against each other; such claims included, in terms, the present arbitration petition filed under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.

(3.) There is no dispute between the parties that the deed of settlement produced by the Respondent in support of its contention, was in fact executed, though it is the case of the Petitioner that she never personally signed the deed even though her name has been mentioned as 'first party' in it. Learned Counsel for the Petitioner submits that the so called compromise reflected in the deed of settlement is void, since one of the considerations for the compromise was withdrawal of a criminal prosecution involving inter alia charges under Sections 467 and 468 of Indian Penal Code, which are non-compoundable. Learned Counsel relies on the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of V. Narasimha Raju vs. Gurumurthy Raju, 1963 AIR(SC) 107 and the decisions of Calcutta High Court and our Court, respectively, in the cases of Sumitra Devi Agarwalla vs. Sulekha Kundu, 1976 AIR(Cal) 196 and Misrilal Jalamchand vs. Sobhachand Jalamchand, 1956 AIR(Bom) 569 in support of his case.