Supreme Court: The bench of MR Shah* and CT Ravikumar, JJ has held that in a case where the notice invoking arbitration is issued prior to the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015 and the application under Section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 for appointment of an arbitrator is made post Amendment Act, 2015, the provisions of pre-Amendment Act, 2015 shall be applicable and not the Amendment Act, 2015.
The Telangana High Court had dismissed the arbitration petition, refusing to appoint the arbitrator/arbitral tribunal on the ground that the Amendment Act, 2015 shall not be applicable and the Act, pre-amendment, 2015, shall be applicable, as in the present case the notice invoking arbitration clause was issued on 26.12.2013, i.e., much prior to the Amendment Act, 2015 and the application under Section 11(6) of the Act has been preferred/filed on 27.04.2016, i.e., much after the amendment Act came into force.
The Court relied on Union of India v. Parmar Construction Company, (2019) 15 SCC 682, wherein it was held that in a case where notice invoking arbitration is issued prior to Amendment Act, 2015 and the application under section 11(6) is filed post amendment, as per section 21 of the principal Act, the date of issuance of the notice invoking arbitration shall be considered as commencement of the arbitration proceedings and therefore as per section 26 of the Amendment Act, 2015, the Amended Act, 2015 shall not be applicable and the parties shall be governed by the pre-amendment Act, 2015.
Hence, upholding the Telangana High Court judgment, the Supreme Court held that the law prevailing prior to the Amendment Act, 2015 shall be applicable in a case where the notice invoking arbitration is issued prior to the Amendment Act, 2015.
[Shree Vishnu Constructions v. Engineer in Chief Military Engineering Service, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 600, decided on 09-05-2023]
*Judgment authored by Justice MR Shah
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Appellant(s): Mr. K. Parameshwar, AOR Ms. Arti Gupta, Adv. Ms. Kanti, Adv.
For Respondent(s): Mr. Padmesh Mishra, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Ms. Megha Karnwal, AOR