M/S Zamil Air Conditioners India Pvt Ltd v. Thapar Institute Of Engineering And Technology

2024:PHHC:015445 M/S ZAMIL AIR CONDITIONERS INDIA PVT LTD

Present:

Mr. Mrinal Beri, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr. Rajat Khanna, Advocate Mr. Vijay Pratap Singh, Advocate and Mr. Vishal Saini, Advocate for the respondent.

**** 1.

This petition has been filed under Section 11 (6) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 for appointment of arbitrator. 2.

Upon notice, respondent has filed a reply contesting the petition wherein primarily three objections have been taken. Firstly, the respondent has submitted that the claim is barred by time. However, this objection is deserves to be noticed and rejected as it come on record that the last payment of Rs.25,00,000/- was made to the petitioner on 19.02.2020 and petitioner invoked the arbitration clause by serving a notice on 23.05.2020 (Annexure P-8). Thereafter, another payment of Rs.1, 46, 560/- was made to the petitioner on 07.04.2021. This notice has been duly responded to by the respondent by its reply dated 11.06.2020 (Annexure P10) and the present petition has been filed on 18.05.2023, within the prescribed period of limitation. Therefore, the first objection of the respondent is rejected. Secondly, the respondent has submitted that the claimant has not attached any document to supports his claim. This aspect Neelam Kumari 2024.02.06 10:34 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document

-2- 2024:PHHC:015445 has to be gone into by the Arbitrator and is not required to be examined by this Court. The third objection of the respondent is that the contract of the agreement is insufficiently stamped. This issue has been finally settled by the Supreme Court in "In Re: Interplay between Arbitration Agreements under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 and the Indian Stamp Act, 1899. In view of the above, the prayer made in the petition deserves to be accepted.

3.

Clause GCC 38 of the agreement (Annexure P-3) provides for the resolution of the disputes by appointment of an arbitral tribunal consisting of three Arbitrators. Counsel for the parties are ad idem that the dispute may be referred to a sole Arbitrator. Neelam Kumari 2024.02.06 10:34 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document