Court No. - 7
Case :- ARBITRATION AND CONCILI. APPL.U/S11(4) No. - 145 of 2018 Applicant :- U.P. State Sugar And Cane Development Corporation Ltd.
Opposite Party :- United Insurance Company Limited Counsel for Applicant :- V.K.S. Somvanshi,Rajendra Kumar Srivastava Counsel for Opposite Party :- Saurabh Srivastava
Hon'ble Saumitra Dayal Singh,J.
1. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri Saurabh Srivastava, learned counsel for the respondent.
2. Admittedly, the Arbitrator had been appointed by this Court on 10.02.2016 in Arbitration and Conciliation Application No. 46 of2007.
3. It is submitted that, at present, all pleadings have been completed and even some submissions have been advanced before the Arbitrator and, therefore, proceedings are at an advanced stage of completion. In such circumstances, it has been submitted that the mandate of the Arbitrator is expiring, as has been noted by the Arbitrator on the order sheet dated 19.05.2018 maintained by him.
4. The applicant, thus, seeks extension of time to conclude arbitration proceedings.
5. The prayer so made is governed by the provisions of Section 29-A (5) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, which reads as under:
"29-A. Time-limit for arbitral award.- (1) ......
(5) The extension of period referred to in sub-section (4) may be on the application of any of the parties and may be granted only for sufficient cause and on such terms and conditions as may be imposed by the Court."
6. The term 'Court' is defined under Section 2 (1)(e) of the Act as under:
"Definitions.-(1) In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(a) .....
(e) "Court" means -
(i) in the case of an arbitration other than international commercial arbitration, the principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction in a district, and includes the High Court in exercise of its ordinary original civil jurisdiction, having jurisdiction to decide the questions forming the subject-matter of the arbitration if the same had been the subject-matter of a suit, but does not include any Civil Court of a grade inferior to such principal Civil Court, or any Court of Small Causes;
(ii) in the case of international commercial arbitration, the High Court in exercise of its ordinary original civil jurisdiction, having jurisdiction to decide the questions forming the subject- matter of the arbitration if the same had been the subject- matter of a suit, and in other cases, a High Court having jurisdiction to hear appeals from decrees of Courts subordinate to that High Court."
7. Clearly, the Allahabad High Court is not a Court of original civil jurisdiction. It has only limited original jurisdiction in testamentary matters. Therefore, the present application is not maintainable. Hence, it is dismissed.
8. It is, however, open to the petitioner to apply before the appropriate Court for extension of time. It is expected that if such an application is made within a period of three weeks alongwith a certified copy of this order, appropriate order would be passed on such application expeditiously.
Order Date :- 29.11.2018 AHA