SWAPAN KUMAR DAS Vs. TARUN AICH & ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The challenge here is to an arbitral award rendered on May 14, 2015 in a dispute between a retired partner of a law firm and the remaining partners of such firm.

(2.) The petitioner herein carried the reference to the agreed arbitrator, primarily seeking his share out of the fixed deposits standing to the credit of the firm. According to the petitioner, a part of the profits of the firm were routinely diverted for fixed deposits to be created therefrom. In other words, it is the petitioner's contention that a part of the profits that could have been taken home by the partners at the end of each financial year was voluntarily permitted to be retained by the firm by way of fixed deposits in banks. The petitioner claims in this Court, as he had claimed before the arbitrator, that at the time that a partner goes out of the firm, if a part of his income has been retained and fixed deposits created in banks, the partner's proportionate share out of the fixed deposits ought to be paid to him.

(3.) Clauses 19 and 22 of the partnership deed of the year 2003 which governed the arbitral reference may be noticed in this context: