UDAICHAND PANNA LALL Vs. DEBIBUX JEWANRAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from a judgment of Mr. Justice Greaves dismissing an application to set aside an award.

(2.) The contract between the parties provided for a reference to arbitration in the following terms: "Any dispute under the contract was to be finally settled by two European arbitrators appointed by buyers and sellers respectively or by an umpire in case of difference." The respondent appointed Mr. Appollonato as arbitrator and requested the appellant to nominate another arbitrator. The appellant did not respond, with the result that the arbitrator proceeded to deal with the matter in controversy. He gave notice that he would hold the arbitration on the 26th June 1919, and requested that any written statement intend ed to be sent should be sent before the date, and that the parties should be present on the appointed day with witnesses and documents. It was not till the day previous, that is, the 25th June 1919, that the appellant, through his Attorney, forwarded to the arbitrator his case; but on the date Used there was no appearance on his behalf. The arbitrator, thereupon, made an ex parte award in favour of the respondent, which is now impeached on two grounds: first, that no notice that the award had been filed was given under Sub-section (2) of Section 11 of the Indian Arbitration Ant, 1899, and that till such notice had been giving, the award should not be enforced as a decree of Court; and, secondly without express notice given of his intention to do so. Mr. Justice Greaves has overruled these contentions; in our opinion, there is no substance in either of them.

(3.) As regards the first point, Sub-section (2) of Section 11 provides that, the arbitrator shall cause the award to be filed in the Court and the notice of the filing shall be given to the parties by the arbitrator. This provision imposes a duty on the arbitrator, after the award has been filed, to give notice of the fact of filing to the parties: Baijnath v, Ahmed Musaji Sahji 18 Ind. Cas. 978 : 40 C. 219 : 17 C.W.N. 395, Sub-section (I) of Section 15,then provides that an award on a submission, on being filed in the Court in accordance with the foregoing provision, shall (unless, the Court remits it to the re-consideration, of the arbitrators or umpire or sets it aside) be enforceable as if it were, a decree of the Court. The appellant has argued that an award which has bean filed in Court, but the filing of which has not been notified to the parties, is not enforceable as if it were a decree of the Court. We cannot accept this contention, because we are invited, in substance, to read into Sub-section (1) of Section 15 the words "and its filing notified to the parties" after the words "filed in the Court," In our opinion, Sub-section (2) of Section 11, read with sub Section (1) of Section 15, shows that the moment an award has been filed in the Court by the arbitrator, it becomes enforceable as if it were a decree of the Court, even before the arbitrator has notified to the patties the fact of its filing under Section 11(2). Consequently, it is not necessary, before the award is enforced, to show that notice of the fact of filing has been given by the arbitrator to the parties concerned. The provisions of the Indian Arbitration Act in this respect are substantially different from the provisions of the English Arbitration Act, 1889, and we sea no reason why we should not give effect to the plain language of Section 15, We may observe that Section 11 contemplates notices by the arbitrator to the parties at two stages, namely, first, notice of malting and signing the award, and secondly, notice of the filing of the award in court. In the present case, we are concerned only with the effect of an alleged omission to give the second notice; such omission, as we have seer, does not destroy the operative character of the filed award. The first contention of the appellant accordingly fails.