New Delhi (ILNS): The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed the special leave petition of a firm that wanted to skip the statutory arbitration clause in a contract and approach the court directly instead.
The bench of Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, Navin Sinha, and Krishna Murari also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000.
The firm, M/s Ved Prakash Mithal, had challenged the September 24 judgment of the Delhi High Court where the high court had appointed an arbitrator.
The firm had filed a suit before the Delhi High Court for recovery of a sum of Rs 2,59,95,243 from the Principal, Kirorimal College. There being an arbitration clause in the agreement, the High Court appointed an arbitrator to adjudicate the dispute. The Petitioner approached the Supreme Court challenging the order of the High Court.
The apex court, after hearing the submission of advocate Peeyoosh Kalra appearing for the Petitioner, observed: “For some time, we may only reiterate what we have stated in Deep Industries Limited v. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited and Another (2019) SCC OnLine SC 1602 and several other cases that we have frowned upon persons knocking at the doors of the writ court in arbitration matters. This is one more such case.
“As a result, we dismiss the matter with costs of Rs 50,000 to be paid to the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee within two weeks,” ordered the bench.
Earlier, the Justice Nariman-led bench had dismissed another Special Leave Petition by imposing costs and observed that a petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India against the dismissal of a petition under Section 16 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act can be entertained only when there is perversity in the order which leads to a patent lack of inherent jurisdiction.
-India LegaL Bureau