Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 – ss.9 and 37 – Scope of appeal – Limited jurisdiction vested u/s.37 – Interim orders passed by High Court in appeals preferred by respondents u/s.37, being aggrieved by order passed by the Commercial Court, dismissing application for interim relief filed by the respondents u/s.9 – Held: By passing the impugned orders, the High Court acted in excess of the limited jurisdiction vested in it u/s.37 – The scope of the appeal preferred by the respondents u/s.37 ought to be confined to examining the merits of the order passed by the Commercial Court that refused to grant any interim measures in favour of respondents on the application moved by them u/s.9 – However, respondents have managed to take appeal proceedings on an entirely different trajectory – As a result, the Appellate Court conducted a roving and fishing inquiry relating to the manner in which investigation was being conducted in respect of FIR registered at the instance of the respondents, to the point that not only was a status report and the case diary called for, the Investigating Officer was also summoned and subsequently, the investigation was been transferred to the Special Operation Group – None of the three impugned orders could have been passed by the Appellate Court in proceedings arising from an order passed u/s.9 – If the respondents have any grievance regarding the unfair or partial manner of the investigation conducted in respect of the FIR registered on their complaint, it is for them to seek appropriate legal recourse before the competent court on the criminal side – However, the proceedings initiated by the respondents u/s.37 can certainly not be permitted to be misused and virtually highjacked towards this end – Impugned orders of High Court are accordingly quashed and set aside – High Court to decide appeal preferred by the respondents strictly in accordance with law and well within the parameters contemplated u/s.37.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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