Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 – Arbitration agreement – Invocation of the arbitration clause in the partnership deed, by the legal heirs of a deceased partner in a partnership firm, being non-signatories to the partnership deed – Entitlement – Right to sue for the rendition of accounts to the legal heirs of the deceased partner – Availability:
Held: Term ‘partners’ extends to and would include their legal heirs, representatives, assigns or legatees, etc – Persons claiming under the rights of a deceased person are the representatives of the deceased party, and thus, both the parties to the agreement and their legal heirs entitled to enforce an arbitral award and are bound by it – Existence of an arbitration agreement is not affected by the death of a party to the arbitration agreement – Thus, the right to sue for rendition of account also survives, ensuring that the legal representatives can assert or defend claims arising from the partnership agreement – On facts, since the legal heirs of the deceased partner, have stepped into the shoes of the deceased, the partnership agreement would operate to bind both the petitioners and the respondents – No error of law committed by High Court in passing the impugned judgment. [Paras 10-12]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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