The main legal point established is the limited scope for judicial intervention in arbitration matters and the need for parties to adhere to the remedies provided under the Arbitration Act.

ANOOP V. MOHTA, J.

These are the appeals under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent Act whereby a challenge is made to a common order passed by the Single Judge of this Court in Writ Petition No. 3559/07 & 3563/07 dated 3.4.2008, that resulted into confirmation of the order passed by the Arbitrator whereby an application under Section 16(1) of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996 (.Arbitration Act. for short) has been rejected by holding that there exists an arbitration clause in the agreement and the matter need not be referred to the Civil Court for any such decision; the appointment of the Arbitrator is as per agreement and lastly, the Arbitrator has jurisdiction to decide the present dispute between the parties.

1. The appellant, therefore, preferred Writ Petition No 3559/07. On identical circumstances, there is another Writ Petition No. 3563/07 filed by the appellant in Letters Patent Appeal No. 213/08. As the issues involved are common and as the impugned judgment passed by the learned Single Judge is also common, we are disposing of these two appeals together.

2. The basic clauses of agreement/agreements dated 21.4.2005 are as under :-

.12.1 Clause-G :- It is also hereby agreed between the representatives and the principal that in case, and if any, dispute or difference arises between them in relation to and in connection with, this agreement or about any of its term or its interpretation, than the said dispute will be referred to the sole arbitrator appointed by the Principal and the venue of arbitration will be only at Nagpur. The decision of the sole arbitrator will be binding on the representative and the principal.

12.2 Clause-H-Jurisdiction :- The parties hereto unconditionally and irrevocably agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent court in Nagpur only with regard to any question or any matter arising out of this agreement and any other document that may be executed by the parties hereto or any of them in pursuance hereof or assign herefrom..

3. Section 16 as relevant of Arbitration Act is reproduced as under :-

.16. Competence of arbitral tribunal to rule on its jurisdiction:-

1. The arbitral tribunal may rule on its own jurisdiction, including ruling on any objections with respect to the existence or validity of the arbitration agreement, and for that purpose, --

a. an arbitration clause which forms part of a contract shall be treated as an agreement independent of the other terms of the contract; and

b. a decision by the arbitral tribunal that the contract is null and void shall not entail ipso jure the invalidity of the arbitration clause.

2. A plea that the arbitral tribunal does not have jurisdiction shall be raised not later than the submission of the statement of defence; however, a party shall not be precluded from raising such a plea merely because that he has appointed, or participated in the appointment of an arbitrator,

3.A plea that the arbitral tribunal is exceeding the scope of its authority shall be raised as soon as the matter alleged to be beyond the scope of its authority is raised during the arbitral proceedings,

4. The arbitral tribunal may, in either of the cases referred to in sub-section (2) of sub-section (3), admit a later plea if it considers the delay justified.

5. The arbitral tribunal shall decide on a plea referred to in subsection (2) or sub-section (3) and, where the arbitral tribunal takes a decision rejecting the plea, continue with the arbitral proceedings and make an arbitral award.

6. A party aggrieved by such an arbitral award may make an application for setting aside such an arbitral award in accordance with section 34..

4. A Constitutional Bench of the Apex Court in SBP & Co. .vs. Patel En