SANJAY KISHAN KAUL, J.

1. The appellant society entered into an Agreement with the respondent on 07.05.1988 in terms whereof the services of the respondent were engaged to carry out the work of development of land allotted to the society and construction of different types of houses including providing electrical and sanitary installations and other services. The services as an Architect to be provided by the respondent were detailed in para 1 of the Agreement while the fees and reimbursement was provided in para 2 therein. The drawings were to be prepared by the respondent. The relevant clauses are extracted hereunder:

“1. ARCHITECTS?SERVICES : The Architects will render all services including helping in :-the land allocation at PAPANKALA, New Delhi, arrangement of loan, sanctioning of quotas of Steel, Cement, G.I. Pipes, Bricks, etc. and all services from the drawing of the site-plan, sketches, etc. to the obtaining of completion certificate, and the appointment of various contractors and sub-contractors which will be wholly choice of the Managing Committee of the Society (Employer). The Architects shall take the Employer’s instructions and carry out all work such as survey of land, preparation of Master Plan, preparation of sketch designs for the houses and, on approval, preparation and submission of plans for the sanction of the local authorities, preparation of architectural, structural drawings with details and drawings of utility services, and specifications for all works, preparation of tenders documents in consultation with the Employer for Civil, Electricals, Sanitary works, advising on them, checking Bill of Contractors, certifying payments, carrying out periodical inspections of the works and attending, on request the Society’s meeting.

2. FEES & REIMBURSEMENT : The Employer agree to pay the Architects as remuneration for the professional services, as detailed in para 1 above to be rendered by the Architects a fee of 2.75% on the total cost of the executed works (Excluding the cost of land).”

2. The Agreement dated 07.05.1988 contained an arbitration clause no. 8 on the second page of the agreement, which reads as under:

“8. ARBITRATION : In the event of any dispute, difference of question arising out of or touching or concerning this agreement or execution of the said works, the same shall be referred to the arbitration of two persons, one each appointed by the parties, who in turn may appoint an umpire, if required.”

3. There is a significance of the page number on which the arbitration clause is typed as the appellant has denied the terms of the agreement including specifically the arbitration clause and during the course of hearing, learned counsel for the appellant pleaded that while page 3 bore the signatures of the Secretary of the appellant society, the signatures on pages 1 and 2 were not of the Secretary allegedly being short signatures. The other fact to be noticed is that though the fee as per clause 2 was fixed, the payment was to be made in instalments as per clause 6 of the Agreement at different stages of the project.

4. The case of the respondent is that the appellant society stated certain deficiencies by a letter dated 11.09.1991, which was replied to by the respondent vide letter dated 19.09.1991. The appellant terminated the Agreement dated 07.05.1988 vide letter dated 30.09.1991. This gave rise to disputes inter se the parties and the respondent invoked the arbitration clause vide letter dated 08.08.1994 suggesting the name of Mr. Charan Shah Singh, Retd. Executive Engineer (Civil) as the nominee Arbitrator of the respondent and requesting the appellant to appoint its nominee Arbitrator. No reply is stated to have been received to this letter and, thus, another letter dated 15.02.1995 was sent by the respondent to the appellant reiterating the contents of the letter dated 08.08.1994 and stating that if the appellant does not appoint its nominee, the Arbitrator Mr. Charan Shah Singh w