S. B. SINHA, C. J.

( 1 ) TO what extent a Writ Petition would be maintainable against an order passed by the chief Justice or the nominee of the Chief justice appointing an arbitrator in terms of sub-section (6) of Section 11 of the arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 is the question involved in all these writ applications.

( 2 ) BEFORE adverting to the question, we may briefly state few facts leading to the filing of these petitions; south Central Railway, Secunderabad is the petitioner in all these writ petitions. It entered into various agreements with the contractors for execution of certain works. In W. P. No. 931 of 2000, the respondent had entered into five agreements separately with the petitioner on 11-3-1996,12-3-1996, 29-6-1994 and 8-8-1994 for different works at different places coming under the vijayawada Division and the works were executed separately. The 1st respondent made claim on 26-4-1997. One sri K. Venkateswararao, Dy. Chief Engineer (Construction)/works, Secunderabad was appointed as the sole arbitrator on 27-5-1999 for adjudication of the dispute as per the terms and conditions of the Contract special conditions and General Conditions of Contract (GCC ).

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