Himachal Pradesh High Court: L. Narayana Swamy CJ., while exercising its powers under Section 11(6) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, appointed an Arbitrator and further allowed to either determine its own procedure for settling the dispute or run itself as per Section 23 and Section 29A of the Act.
Background
The present petition is moved under Section 11(6) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, by a Company who was awarded the work for widening and strengthening the existing single/inter-mediate lane carriage way with geometric improvement of two-lane carriage way in KM 58/100 to 105/0 of National Highway 70 by the respondents, seeking a direction for appointment of arbitrator for resolving the dispute between the petitioner and the respondents.
Respondents have filed reply in which objection regarding claim being barred by limitation has been taken. Senior counsel for the petitioner relies on the judgment of Supreme Court in, Uttrakhand Porv Sanik Kalyan Nigam v. Northern Coal Field, SLP (C) No. 11476 of 2018, wherein it was categorically stated that, “delay itself is a question of law and facts and has to be decided by the Arbitral Tribunal or the Arbitrator appointed by the Court.”
Observations
Recognizing the contention forwarded by the counsel for the petitioner and reiterating the Supreme Court finding in the aforementioned case, the Court, in exercise of its powers under Section 11(6) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, appointed A.K. Goel, retired judge of the Himachal Pradesh High Court as the sole Arbitrator and further said, “It shall be open for the learned Arbitrator to determine his own procedure with the consent of the parties. Otherwise, also, entire procedure with regard to fixing of time limit for filing pleadings or passing of Award stands prescribed under Sections 23 and 29A of the Act. Liberty is also reserved to the respondent to raise objections, if any, by way of filing counterclaim before the Arbitrator.”
Decision
While allowing the present petition, the Court clarified the practice and procedure related to the exercise of Court’s power under Section 11(6) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 and instances which may fall under the direct determination of the Arbitral Tribunal.[Shivalaya Construction (P) Ltd. v. State of H.P., 2020 SCC OnLine HP 2801, decided on 27-11-2020]
Counsel for the Petitioner: Bimal Gupta, Senior Advocate with Kusum Chaudhary, Advocate.
Counsel for the Respondents: Ritta Goswami, Additional Advocate General.
Sakshi Shukla, Editorial Assistant has put this story together