The present petition under Section 11 of the

Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, has been filed by the

petitioner-Shreyoshree

Rural

Technology

and

Rural

Development

Society

against

the

respondents-State

Horticulture Department seeking appointment of an

Arbitrator in pursuance of the Arbitration Clause -14 of the

Agreement dated 03.06.2013 vide Annexure-A.

2. Clause-14 of the said Agreement, which contains

an Arbitration clause, reads as under:-

“ 14.

Procedures for disputes resolutions.

14.1

If a dispute or difference between the

parties arises in connection with the Agreement, the

senior representatives of the parties shall meet as

soon as practicable and endeavor to resolve the said

dispute or difference.

14.2

Any

dispute

arising

out

of

the

Agreement or relating to the Agreement, including

the breach or invalidating of any of the provisions

three of or of the performance of the service, which

cannot be amicably settled between the parties as

mentioned

above,

shall

be

finally

settled

in

accordance with the provisions of the Arbitration and

Conciliation Act, 1996, as amended from time to

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time. The language of arbitration shall be English and

place of the arbitration shall be in Bangalore. The

award shall be final binding upon the Parties.”

3.

The material on record discloses that since

disputes arose between the parties in relation to the

aforesaid Agreement dated 03.06.2013 containing the

aforesaid arbitration agreement at Clause No.14.2, on

03.03.2021, the petitioner invoked the aforesaid arbitration

clause and issued a notice to the respondents putting forth

various claims and contentions and nominating and

appointing a sole arbitrator and calling upon the

respondents to give their concurrence / consent to refer the

dispute to arbitration. However, despite having received

the said notice, the respondents have neither sent any

reply nor complied with the requests and demands made in

the aforesaid arbitration notice.

4.

Subsequently, the parties have not only failed

to resolve their disputes but they have also not reached any

consensus / agreement for appointment of an arbitrator and

as such, petitioner is before this Court by way of the

present petition.

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5.

In

view

of

the

aforesaid

facts

and

circumstances, though several contentions have been

urged by both sides in support of their respective claims,

without expressing any opinion on the merits / demerits of

the rival contentions, I deem it just and appropriate to allow

this petition by referring the dispute between the parties to

arbitration with the consent of both sides by appointing

Hon’ble Justice K.Sreedhar Rao, Former Judge, High

Court of Karnataka, to act as the sole Arbitrator to resolve

the dispute between the parties under the provisions of the

Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, as per the Rules

governing the Arbitration and Conciliation Centre (Domestic

& International) at Bengaluru.

6. However, in view of Clause – 14.1 of the

Agreement referred to supra, both parties have agreed that

they would attempt to resolve the dispute amicably by

mediation / conciliation between Senior representatives

from both sides. Under these circumstances, I also deem it

just and appropriate to direct the parties to attempt to

resolve the dispute amicably by mediation / conciliation and

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only if the same fails, the dispute would automatically get

referred to arbitration without further orders and without

reference to the Bench.

7. In the result, I pass the following:-

ORDER

(i) Petition is hereby allowed.

(ii) In the first instance, the representatives of the

petitioner are hereby directed to appear before the 2^nd

respondent on 17.08.2022 at 3.00 PM. Pursuant thereto,

the 2^nd respondent shall attempt to resolve the dispute with

the petitioner amicably by recourse to mediation /

conciliation.

(iii) In the event, the dispute does not get resolved

amicably as stated supra, the dispute shall stand

automatically referred to arbitration as stated below without

further ord