JUDGMENT

TARUN CHATTERJEE, J.

Leave granted.

These appeals by special leave have been filed against the orders dated 5th of January 2005 in A.R.B.P. Nos. 11, 12, 17, 18 and 28 of 2005 passed by the High Court of Orissa whereby the High Court had appointed Sh. Bibhudhendra Mishra, a Senior Advocate of the Orissa High Court as the sole arbitrator on the application of the respondent filed under Section 11(6) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 2006 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"). Since the parties and the subject-matter of the dispute are the same, we have clubbed all these appeals and the same are being decided analogously by this common judgment to avoid any confusion.

The relevant facts leading to the filing of these appeals as emerging from the records may be briefly stated as follows :

The parties herein entered into a contract pursuant to distinct notices inviting tender by BSNL [in short 'the appellant'] for the work of construction of 4 Nos. of Type - II, 2 Nos. Type - III and 1 No. of Type - IV Staff Quarters at Bhanjanagar of vertical extension to combined building at Aska of 3 Nos. of Type III, 3 Nos. of Type II and 4 K type T.E. building at Jankia and of vert