The main legal point established in the judgment is the strict construction of arbitration clauses and the adherence to the terms of the arbitration agreement by the parties.

JUDGMENT

Yogesh Khanna, J.

1. This petition is filed by the petitioner under Section 11 of Arbitration and Conciliation Act for appointment of an arbitrator to adjudicate the disputes between the parties. The only contention raised in the present petition is the arbitration was not invoked within time and hence petition under Section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act is not maintainable. The relevant clauses are as under:

"7. Settlement of Disputes

7.1 Mutual Consultation If any dispute of any kind whatsoever shall arise between the Employer and the Contractor in connection with or arising out of the Contract, including without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, any question regarding its existence, validity or termination, or the execution of the Works, whether during the progress of the Works or after their completion and whether before or after the termination, abandonment or breach of the Contract, the parties shall seek to resolve any such dispute or difference by mutual consultation. If the parties fail to resolve such a dispute or difference by mutual consultation, then the dispute may be settled through Expert Settlement Council / Arbitration / other remedies available under the applicable laws.

7.2 Resolution of Dispute through Expert Settlement Council If the parties fail to resolve such a dispute or difference by mutual consultation, the dispute if the parties agree, may be referred to Conciliation in cases involving disputed amount up to Rs 250 crores, which is to be arrived at considering the claim and counter claim of the parties to the dispute.

7.3 Arbitration

7.3.1 If the process of mutual consultation and/or ESC fails to arrive at a settlement between the parties as mentioned at GCC Sub-Clauses 7.1 &

7.2 above, Employer or the Contractor may, within Thirty (30) days of such failure, give notice to the other party, with a copy for information to the ESC (as applicable), of its intention to commence arbitration, as hereinafter provided, as to the matter in dispute, and no arbitration in respect of this matter may be commenced unless such notice is given. The mechanism of settling the disputes through arbitration shall be applicable only in cases where the disputed amount (i.e. total amount of Claims excluding claims of interest) does not exceed Rs. 25 crores. In case the disputed amount exceeds Rs. 25 Crores, the parties shall be within their rights to take recourse to remedies as may be available to them under the applicable laws other than Arbitration after prior intimation to the other party. There shall be no arbitration where the claim amount is only up to Rs. 5 lakhs.

The parties at the time of invocation of arbitration shall submit all the details of the claims and the counter-claims including the Heads/Sub- heads of the Claims/Counter-Claims and the documents relied upon by the parties for their respective claims and counter-claims. The parties shall not file any documents/details of the claims and counter-claims thereafter.

The claims and the counter claims raised by the parties at the time of invocation of the arbitration shall be final and binding on the parties and no further change shall be allowed in the same at any stage during arbitration under any circumstances whatsoever.

The parties to the contract shall invoke arbitration within Six months from the date of completion of the execution of work under the contract or the termination of the contract as the case may be and the parties shall not invoke arbitration later on after expiry of the said period of six months.

The parties shall not invoke arbitration other than in the case of completion of execution of work or the termination of the contract as mentioned above.

Notwithstanding the above, in case of disputes with Indian Contractor who is a Central Government Department /Enterprise /organisation or a State Level Public Enterprise (SLPE), the aforesaid limit of Rs 25 crores shall not be applicable and arbitration proceeding may be co