Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 – ss.42 and 11(6) – Jurisdiction over arbitral proceedings – Competent High Court – Dispute between appellant and respondent – Respondent filed application before High Court of Orissa u/s.11(6) seeking appointment of arbitrator – Specific objection raised by appellant on entertainability and/or maintainability of the application u/s.11(6) – Placing reliance on s.42, the appellant submitted that as respondent-claimant had initiated proceedings u/s.9 in the Court at Vishakhapatnam, only the High Court of Andhra Pradesh at Amaravati would have jurisdiction to entertain the application u/s.11(6) – Without deciding the said issue which went to the root of the jurisdiction of the High Court of Orissa, the said High Court entertained the application u/s.11(6) and appointed an arbitrator observing that since the appellants, in principle, had not opposed the appointment of an arbitrator, little purpose would be served in relegating the respondent to the concerned High Court as that will only delay the adjudication of the disputes – Held: The appellants might not have opposed the appointment of an arbitrator (though the fresh appointment of an Arbitrator was also opposed by the appellants) by that itself it will not confer the jurisdiction upon the High Court if otherwise, the High Court had no jurisdiction – Before filing an application u/s.11(6) before the High Court of Orissa, the respondent had moved an application before the Court at Visakhapatnam u/s.9 – In that view of the matter, the High Court of Orissa committed a serious error in entertaining application u/s.11(6) and appointing arbitrator – However, respondent-claimant may submit/move an application u/s.11(6) before the competent High Court having jurisdiction namely the High Court of Andhra Pradesh at Amaravati.
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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