MOHAMMAD ISHAQ BHAT Vs. TARIQ AHMAD SOFI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Whether stranger to an arbitration agreement can be impleaded a party to an application under Section 9 Jammu and Kashmir Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1997 (for short Act) is the short controversy involved in the present revision petition.

(2.) First the back ground in which the revision petition is filed:

(3.) The petitioner filed an application before the learned Principal District Judge, Srinagar on 29-12-2006 praying therein the petitioner be impleaded as respondent in the application. The petitioner's case was that the partnership agreement between the respondent 1 and 2 was nothing but a piece of fraud; that the petitioner was running his business in the suit shop and that the respondents had kept back vital information from the Court and ignored to disclose that the Civil Suit assailing validity of partnership deed was sub judice. The petitioner pleaded that the application under Section 9 of the Act was aimed to deprive the petitioner of his property and business. The application was resisted by the respondents on the ground that the petitioner not being a party to the arbitration agreement could not be added as a party to the application. It was admitted that Civil Suit regarding the subject matter of the application was awaiting disposal before 2nd Sub-ordinate Judge, Srinagar but pleaded that the suit was designed to defeat the rights of the respondent No. 1.