Judgment

MOHAN,J.:- The facts relating to the case are as follows:-

The petitioner herein offered his tender for entering into a contract for provision of officers mess and single officers quarters. On 13-3-1970, the tender was accepted and the acceptance was communicated. Thereafter, a contract was signed at Lucknow. Between 1973, the petitioner executed the contract. During the course of contract, he was required to do some extra work for which he made a claim. A dispute arose concerning this. Clause 70 of the contract enabled the parties to go by way of arbitration. He applied to the Engineer-in-Chief, Army Headquarters, New Delhi for appointment of arbitrator. Accordingly, Brig. EMA Da Costa, Chief Engineer, Pune and Rajasthan zone was appointed as an arbitrator on 23-11-73. The petitioner vide his letter dated 2-12-73, protested against the appointment of Brig. Da Costa. It appears that the proceedings were dragged on and nothing useful turned out. In February 1976, when Brig. Da Costa was relieved from the Army, his appointment as arbitrator came to an end. Thereafter by an order dated 27-4-76, Brig. SDL Jaini was appointed as an arbitrator. Even then no progress took place in