R.K. VERMA Vs. SUNIL JAIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition under Sec. 14 of Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996, (for short referred to as 'Act 1996 ') has been filed for declaring that the mandate of Arbitral Tribunal stands terminated.

(2.) The present petition has been filed by the contractor who was given a contract for supply of PVC insulated armored underground signalling cables to the Indian Railways and certain disputes and differences arose in the matter of execution of the said contract. The petitioner requested for arbitration in the matter and vide Annexure A-15, the Railway sent an email to the petitioner seeking waiver in terms of Sec. 12 (5) of the Act 1996, which was refused by the petitioner. It is the case of the petitioner that thereafter the respondent vide letter dtd. 5/1/2024 forwarded a panel of four names and called upon the petitioner to propose any two names from among the said Ex-Officers of the Railways out of which the Railways would select one to act as petitioner's nominee for constituting a three-member Arbitral Tribunal. The petitioner chose two names, i.e. Shri R. C. Meena and Shri B. P. Gupta, both retired Railway Officers. However, it is contended that in absence of waiver by the petitioner under sec. 12(5) of the Act 1996, such nomination/selection holds no legal validity.

(3.) It is further contended that on 22/4/2024, the Railways sent a letter to the petitioner that the Arbitral Tribunal has been constituted comprising Shri R. C. Meena as presiding arbitrator and two other arbitrators namely Shri Anil Kumar Agrawal and Shri Chander Mohan Jindal, which was objected by the petitioner that the constitution of the Tribunal is not in accordance with the Act of 1996. This objection was vide Annexure A-17 and petitioner demanded constitution of a legally valid Arbitral Tribunal. However, the Tribunal entered into reference on 10/5/2024 and continued with its proceedings. The learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that left with no choice, the petitioner filed its statement of claim before the Tribunal and is now before this Court under Sec. 14 of the Act of 1996 being aggrieved by the illegal continuation of proceedings before the illegally constituted Tribunal and therefore, now by way of this petition, a declaration is sought that the mandate of the Tribunal stands terminated because the arbitrators are De-Jure unable to perform their functions as there are circumstances which give rise to justifiable doubts as to independence and impartiality of the Tribunal.