The main legal point established in the judgment is that the Court has jurisdiction to entertain an arbitration petition if a part of the cause of action arises within its jurisdiction, as per Section 2(1)(e) of the Arbitration Act.

ANOOP V. MOHTA, J.

1. This appeal is filed under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (Amendment Act, 2015) (with effect from 23 October 2015) by the Appellant/Original (Purchaser) Petitioner, as the learned Single Judge rejected Section 9 application filed by the Petitioner thereby refused to grant any protective order/injunction for short against the Respondent (Seller) from assigning, selling, transferring, alienating and/or creating third party rights, title or interest in respect of the two barges or parting with possession thereof in favour of any other person so described in Exhibit M to the petition.

2. The issue of jurisdiction, as stated to be raised specifically, however, not decided and dealt with on 25 February 2016 when Section 9 application was rejected finally. The Respondent applied for Speaking to Minutes. By order dated 2 March 2016, it is recorded as under:

“5. Hence, the following line to be added in paragraph 6 in second last line i.e. after the word arbitral tribunal.

The learned counsel for the Respondent also raised the objection about the maintainability of this petition before this court on the ground of jurisdiction. As the petitioner failed to pay the amount within stipulated time, I do not find any reason to entertain the said issue.”

The learned Judge has maintained the order on merit. We are not concerned with any adinterim relief pending Section 9 Petition.

3. Admittedly, the issue of jurisdiction did not decide by the learned Judge. The requirement before passing order is that the Court, as defined under Section 2(e) of (Arbitration Act), must be the Court for passing any interim injunction or protective order under this Section. The term Court is defined:

“2(1) In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires:

(e) Court means:-

(i) In the case of an arbitration other than international commercial arbitration, the principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction in a district, and includes the High Court in exercise of its ordinary original civil jurisdiction, having jurisdiction to decide the questions forming the subject-matter of the arbitration if the same had been the subject-matter of a suit, but does not include any Civil Court of a grade inferior to such principal Civil Court, or any Court of Small Causes.

(ii) In the case of international commercial arbitration, the High Court in exercise of its ordinary original civil jurisdiction, having jurisdiction to decide the questions forming the subject-matter of the arbitration if the same had been the subject-matter of a suit, and in other cases, a High Court having jurisdiction to hear appeals from decrees of Courts subordinate to that High Court.

42. Jurisdiction. Notwithstanding anything contained elsewhere in this Part or in any other law for the time being in force, where with respect to an arbitration agreement any application under this Part has been made in a Court, that Court alone shall have jurisdiction over the arbitral proceedings and all subsequent applications arising out of that agreement and the arbitral proceedings shall be made in that Court and in no other Court.”

4. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) dated 15 January 2016 admittedly entered into at Panaji Goa which has an arbitration agreement also. The subject matter, the barges, are located at Senori at Bicholim Goa. The delivery as per agreement to be made at Senori at Navolim Goa. The payment also to be made by the Petitioner/Appellant though from Mumbai but to be in account at Goa. The Appellant/Petitioner is purchaser and the Respondent is seller. Admittedly, time was made an essence of the contract.

5. Another requirement is that there must be an arbitration agreement before applying for any protective measures as contemplated under the Arbitration Act. The arbitration clause in the present matter is as under:

“17. Should any dispute be arise out of this memorandum of understanding, about the interpretation or about performance of t