Harnam Singh, J.

1. This is an appeal under Clause 10, Letters Patent from the judgment given by Kapur J. in F. A. F. O. No. 56 of 1949.

2. On 11-6-1947, Bodh Raj Shah, hereinafter referred to as the applicant, took out an insurance policy including riot risk, the amount of insurance being Rs. 50,000 on the house and Rs. 40,000 on the furniture & household goods.

3. On 21st August 1948, the applicant initiated proceedings under Section 20, Indian Arbitration Act, 1940 , hereinafter referred to as the Act. In that application the applicant maintained that in the last week of August 1947, the furniture and household goods covered by the policy were looted in the riots that followed the partition of the country, that he had intimated to the Great American Insurance Company, Ltd., hereinafter referred to as the Com- pany, that the furniture and household goods had been looted and had claimed Rs. 38,000/-from the company on the basis of the insurance policy.

4. In the written statement the company pleaded inter alia that the arbitration clause only applied to a difference as to the amount of loss or damage and not to a claim which the company rejected altogether, whatever the lo