(1.) THE office has raised an objection as regards the maintainability of this L.P.A. for want of leave of the Court as contemplated by Clause 15 of the Letters Patent on the ground that the order appealed against was passed in C.M. Ps. in Second Appeal and, therefore, the question whether the party has an unqualified statutory right of appeal under Section 39 of the Arbitration Act was therefore of little moment. It would appear from the facts of the case that in the course of Second Appeal 203 of 1962, the parties agreed that the subject matter of dispute may be referred to the Arbitrators. At their request this Court directed the dispute to be submitted to the Arbitrators for decision. THE Arbitrator passed an award and remitted the same to the Court. THE appellant herein raised objection thereto and requested the Court to set aside the award. THE Court heard the arguments and finally passed an order refusing to set aside the award and directed that a decree be drawn in terms of the award. This order it may be noted was passed in C. M. Ps. Nos. 10668/62, 8929 and 9314 of 1964, No separate order in fact has so far been passed in the Second Appeal itself. But since a decree was directed to be drawn in terms of the award, the office on that basis has closed the file. At the time when the order was made, the petitioner did not apply for leave to appeal presumably because he was under the impression that he has a substantive right of appeal under the provisions of Section 39(1) of the Arbitration Act, that being an arbitration proceeding, though started in the course of a second appeal. If the second appeal had been disposed of, probably the Petitioner would have asked for leave but that did not come to pass. Now the petitioner has filed an appeal against the order passed by a Single Judge of this Court. THE question to whether it is maintainable in law
(2.) IT is indisputable that the proceedings in which the order was passed setting aside the award, were initiated for the first time in second appeal. They are governed by the provisions of the Arbitration Act. Section 39 of the Arbitration Act reads thus: