Judgment

Mr. Gurvinder Singh Gill, J.

The petitioner assails order dated 15.5.2023, passed by learned Commercial Court, Ludhiana, vide which a petition filed by the petitioner under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereinafter, referred to, in short, as ‘the Act’), has been returned back to the petitioner, after 5 years of its institution on the ground that the Court at Ludhiana has no territorial jurisdiction and that the same is to filed in the Courts at Delhi.

2. A few facts, necessary to notice are that the respondent is owner of a plot situated in Ludhiana which he had leased out in favour of the petitioner. A ‘Memorandum of Agreed Terms’ (MOAT) dated 28.2.2008 (Annexure P-1) with regard to said lease was executed at Ludhiana. The said MOAT provided for resolution of disputes by way of arbitration. The relevant extract from MOAT, pertaining to arbitration reads as under:

ARBITRATION:

In case of any disputes and differences arising out of the Lease, between the Lessor and the Lessee shall be settled mutually between the PARTIES, failing which the same shall be settled by arbitration under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 or the then prevailing A