( 1 ) THE following question has been referred to this Bench by our brothers Jagdish Sahai and mithan Lal:" whether an application under Section 20 of the Indian Arbitration Act can be made in a case like the present one where the arbitrator had started to function and had entered upon the reference but at a later stage could not proceed with the same?" a conflict among decisions dealing with this question necessitated this reference to a Full bench". The parties to this appeal are brothers and had disputes regarding partition of joint property. On 9-12-1955 they entered into an agreement to refer the question of partition of all their joint property to the sole arbitration of Sri Baij Nath Prasad. No time was fixed for his making an award and, therefore, under Section 3 of the Arbitration Act (which will henceforth be referred to as the Act) Clause 3 of the 1st Schedule attached to the Act applied and the arbitrator had to make his award within four months after entering on the reference or after having been called upon to act by notice in writing from any party to the arbitration agreement or within such extended time as the Court might allow. The agreement was filed