$~8 * IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI + ARB.P. 1832/2025 SH. ASHOK KUMAR .....Petitioner Through: Mr. Avinash Trivedi and Mr.

Rahul Aggarwal, Advocates.

versus PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT GOVT OF NCT OF DELHI .....Respondent Through: Mr. Abhinav Sharma, Advocate through video-conferencing.

CORAM:

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE HARISH VAIDYANATHAN SHANKAR

O R D E R

% 20.01.2026

1. The present Petition, under Section 11(6) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 [“Act”], has been filed seeking the appointment of an Arbitrator for the adjudication of disputes inter se the parties.

2. The material on record indicates that the Respondent herein had issued an Award Letter dated 18.01.2019 in favour of the Petitioner and subsequently, the parties entered into an Agreement bearing No. 15/EE/Edu. North/PWD/2018- 19/2757 [“Agreement”]

3. Clause 25 of the Agreement, which contains the arbitration clause, reads as follows:

“Clause 25: Settlement of Disputes & Arbitration Except where otherwise provided in the contract, all questions and disputes relating to the meaning of the specifications, design, drawing and instructions here-in before mentioned and as to the quality of workmanship or materials used on the work or as to any other question, claim, right, matter or thing whatsoever in any way arising out of or relating to the contract, designs, drawings, specification, estimates, instructions, orders of these conditions or otherwise concerning the works or the execution or failure to execute the same whether arising during the progress of the work or after the cancellation, termination, completion or abandonment thereof shall be dealt with as mentioned hereinafter:

(i) If the contractor considers any work demanded of him to be outside the requirements of the contract, or disputes any drawings, record or decision given in writing by the Engineer-in-Charge or if the Engineer in Charge considers any act or decision of the contractor or any matter in connection with or arising out of the contract or carrying out of the work, to be unacceptable and is disputed, such party shall promptly within 15 days of the arising of the disputes request the Chief Engineer or where there is no Chief Engineer, the Additional Director General (CE/ADG) who shall refer the disputes to the Dispute Reressal Committee (DRC) within 15 days along with a list of disputes with amounts claomed if any in respect of each such dispute. The Dispute Redressal Committee (DRC) shall give the opposing party two weeks for a written response, and, and, give its decision within a period of 60 days extendable by 30 days by consent of both the parties from the receipt of reference from CE/ADG. The constitution of Dispute Redressal Committee (DRC) shall be as indicated in Schedule 'F'. Provided that no party shall be represented before the Dispute Redressal Committee by an advocate/legal counsel etc.

If the Dispute Redressal Committee (DRC) fails to give its decision within the aforesaid period or any party is dissatisfied with the decision of Dispute Redressal Committee (DRC) or expiry of time limit given above, then either party may within a perio of 30 days from the receipt of the decision of Dispute Redressal Committee (DRC), give notice to the Chief Engineer, CPWD, in charge of the work or if there be no Chief Engineer, the Additional Director General of the concerned region of CPWD or if there be no Additional Director General, the Director General, CPWD (CE/ADG/DG) for appointment of arbitrator on prescribed proforma as per Appendix XV under intimation to the other party.

It is a term of contract that each party invoking arbitration must exhaust the aforesaid mechanism of settlement of claims/disputes prior to invoking arbitration.

The CE/ADG/DG shall in such case appoint the sole arbitrator or one of the three arbitrators as the case may be within 30 days of receipt of such a request and refer such disputes to arbitration. Wherever the Arbitral Tribunal consists of three Arbitrators, th