2008 Supreme(All) 207
H. L. GOKHALE, C. J.
M/s. Manish Engineering Enterprises
V ersus
Managing Director, IFFCO, N. Delhi and Ors.
C.M.A. No. 270647 of 2006
Decided On : 25-1-2008.
Important Points
Subject
Arbitration Law - Review of Arbitration Orders
Act Referred
Headnote
The applicant sought to appoint an arbitrator under Section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, for their money claim against the respondents. The Chief Justice passed multiple orders, ultimately dismissing the application. The court analyzed the claims, letters, and limitation periods, and found that the claims were time-barred. The court also discussed the powers of review and the distinction between procedural review and review on merits. The court dismissed the application for recall, stating that it amounted to seeking substantive review, which is not permissible under the Act.
Dhruv Narayan, for Applicant; Ashwani Kumar Misra, for Respondents.
2. The main ground of the present application dated 12-12-2006, seeking review of the order dated 22-9-2006, is that under the prior order dated 19-5-2006, an Arbitrator had already been appointed and had started functioning and, therefore, the order dated 22-9-2006 reviewing the order dated 19-5-2006 appointing an Arbitrator was not called for. As against this, the submission of the respondents is that although an Arbitrator was appointed under the order dated 19-5-2006, he had not started functioning and that the order dated 19-5-2006 appointing an Arbitrator was passed on the first date of hearing without affording an opportunity to the respondents. The applicants application for recall dated 24-3-2006 (seeking recall of order dated 24-2-2006) was based on two letters of the respondents dated 1-7-1998 and 30-11-2001 and particularly the latter one, to save limitation since the letters were supposed to have stated that the respondents were processing the bills of applicants. The Arbitration Application No. 41 of 2002 filed by the applicants is basically to seek an arbitration into their monetary claim against the respondents, which the respondents are contending to be hopelessly time barred. The respondents contend that they were not given any opportunity to controvert the contents of these two letters. According to them, the second lettter dated 30-11-2001 supposed to be from the respondents was a foreged document and they had not written any such letter. It was the case of the respondents that the order dated 19-5-2006 was not called for inasmuch as that was on an application, which sought review of the order dated 24-2-2006, which after hearing the parties had held the claim to be time barred. Thus, whereas according to the respondents, the order dated 19-5-2006 was not called for, according to the applicant initial order dated 24-2-2006 and the third order dated 22-9-2006 were not called for.
3. Now before we look to the various orders passed by the then Honble Chief Justice, we may first look to the main Arbitration Application No. 41 of 2002, to understand as to what was the claim therein. If we look to the prayer clause of this Arbitration Application along with contents of paragraph 3 thereof, five claims were sought to be referred for arbitration. They were as follows :-
1. Claim for Rs. 2,23,834.00 which