INDORE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY Vs. ARBITRAL TRIBUNAL, THROUGH HONBLE SHRI JUSTICE RAMESH GARG (RETD) AND THREE OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner before this Court, Indore Development Authority has filed this present writ petition being aggrieved by the order passed by the learned Special Judge under the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Court Act, 2015, dated 17/10/2016 by which the application preferred u/S. 14 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 seeking revocation of mandate of the arbitrator and quashment of proceedings before the Arbitral Tribunal was sought.

(2.) Facts of the case reveal that a contract was awarded to M/s. Kalyan Toll Infrastructure Ltd., - respondent No.4 by the Indore Development Authority on 9/3/2012 for the work of design and construction of railway overbridge having viaduct including approaches and another work. A dispute arose between the parties and the respondent No.4 served a notice to the Indore Development Authority to refer the matter for arbitration in accordance with law the provision of The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 and to appoint Arbitral Tribunal. The Arbitral Tribunal was constituted and Honourable Shri Justice R. S. Garg (Former Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court) was appointed as a third member of the Arbitral Tribunal. Contention of the petitioner - Indore Development Authority is that Honourable Shri Justice R. S. Garg is a very distant relation of the Managing Director of Kalyan Toll Infrastructure Ltd., and, therefore, a prayer was made by filing a Writ Petition ie., Writ Petition No. 5740/2016 for declaring the Arbitral Tribunal as illegal and contrary to the provisions as contained in Sec. 12(1) and 12(2) of the Act of 1996. Another relief was sought for restraining the Tribunal from proceeding ahead in the matter. Lastly it was prayed that the Arbitral Tribunal be directed to refer the matter to Madhyastham Adhikaran at Bhopal for adjudication of the dispute. The petition filed by the Indore Development Authority, as already stated, was registered as Writ Petition No. 5740/2016 and the Division Bench of this Court has passed an order on 24/8/2016. The Division Bench of this Court in paragraphs 16, 17, 18 and 19 has held as under :

(3.) The Division Bench of this Court after taking into account the judgment delivered in the case of SBP and Company Vs. M/s. Patel Engineering and another reported in 2005 (8) SCC 618 has held that a Writ Petition challenging the order passed by the Arbitral Tribunal u/S. 12 is not at all maintainable. Not only this, the Division Bench has also observed that in the light of the Act of 1996 the petitioner shall certainly be having a remedy to challenge the arbitral award.