The court emphasized the need to adhere to the Fourth Schedule of the Arbitration Act in determining arbitrator's fees and highlighted the importance of avoiding delay in arbitration proceedings to prevent prejudice to the parties.

ORDER

Chandra Dhari Singh, J. (Oral)

1. The instant petition under Section 14(2), 15(2) and 15(3) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereinafter "Arbitration Act") has been filed on behalf of petitioner seeking the following reliefs:

"(i) pass an order terminating the mandate of the Arbitral Tribunal comprising Hon'ble Mr Justice (retd.) S.L. Bhayana, learned sole Arbitrator;

(ii) appoint a substituted Arbitrator;

(iii) pass any other or further order which this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the fact and circumstances of the case."

2. The background of the matter reveals that the petitioner is a company duly constituted under the Companies Act, 1956 engaged in the business of manufacture, supply and export of RO Membranes, RO Water Purifiers, Spare Parts thereto, etc., and the respondent is the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd., also a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956.

3. The respondent invited Expression of Interest for empanelment of firms for installation and operation of water vending machines on stand- alone basis at certain railway stations. For the same, the petitioner was declared the successful bidder and was empanelled upon satisfying the conditions specified in the Expression of Interest.

4. The work in accordance with the Expression of Interest commenced, however, certain disputes arose between the parties during the course of the work. Consequently, arbitration proceedings were invoked and vide letter dated 13th March 2020, Sh. Vinod Asthana, Former MD, Central Railside Warehouse Company, was appointed as the sole arbitrator to adjudicate the disputes between the parties. The petitioner objected to the appointment of the said arbitrator and moved this Court by way of filing O.M.P. (T) (COMM) 100/2021, seeking termination of mandate of the arbitrator and appointment of a substitute arbitrator. Accordingly, a Coordinate Bench of this Court, vide its order dated 6th October 2021, appointed Justice (Retd.) S.L. Bhayana as the substitute sole arbitrator.

5. At this stage, the petitioner has approached this Court by way of the instant petition seeking termination of the learned sole arbitrator appointed by this Court to adjudicate the disputes between the parties and appointment of a substitute arbitrator.

6. Mr. Rajesh Yadav, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted that vide order dated 6th October 2021, the Coordinate Bench of this Court appointed the learned sole arbitrator to adjudicate the disputes between the parties and directed that the fee of the learned sole arbitrator would be fixed as per the Fourth Schedule of the Arbitration Act.

7. It is submitted that during the course of the arbitration proceedings, the petitioner was directed to file its Statement of Defence, however, despite request, insufficient time was granted to the petitioner to file the same. Since, the time was insufficient, the petitioner could not file the Statement of Defence within the time stipulated by the learned arbitrator, and consequently the learned arbitrator imposed a cost of Rs. 10,000/- upon the petitioner, to be paid to the arbitrator himself.

8. It is submitted that the petitioner paid the cost and secretarial charges on the subsequent date of proceedings. It is further submitted that the petitioner deposited an amount of Rs. 30,000/- towards cost and secretarial charges with the learned arbitrator. However, the fact of submission of the fees was not recorded in any of the orders passed by the learned arbitrator. The amount of secretarial charges kept increasing with every date despite the fact that no secretarial work was actually carried out. Even the orders were being handwritten and no typed copies of orders were ever received by the parties.

9. The learned senior counsel further submitted that on 6th January 2022, the learned arbitrator gave directions to the parties to deposit a further amount of Rs. 55,000/- towards secretarial