Created byFuzzy Cloud

Supreme Court of India

PURI CONSTRUCTIONS PVT. LTD.versusSTATE OF MADHYA PRADESH & ORS.

Citation
2018 INSC 360
Decided
18 April 2018

Holding

The award, though rendered earlier, is to be treated as having been passed under the Madhya Pradesh Madhyastham Adhikaran Adhiniyam, 1983, and all pending proceedings are to be transferred accordingly.

Summary

Puri Constructions entered into a 1984 agreement to construct an assembly building in Madhya Pradesh. A dispute led the Delhi High Court to appoint an arbitrator who rendered an award in 1989, which was later made a rule of court and executed in 1991. The appellant appealed the execution, and the Delhi High Court linked the enforceability of the award to another pending appeal, deferring it pending a Supreme Court larger bench decision in Madhya Pradesh Rural Road Development Authority v. L.G. Chaudhary Engineers (2012). The Supreme Court held that, in view of that decision, the award must be treated as having been passed under the Madhya Pradesh Madhyastham Adhikaran Adhiniyam, 1983, and ordered the transfer of the pending Delhi High Court proceedings to the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the arbitration matters to the state arbitration tribunal. The appeal was disposed, directing the parties to proceed before the transferred forums.

Issues considered

  • Whether an arbitral award rendered before the enactment of the Madhya Pradesh Madhyastham Adhikaran Adhiniyam, 1983, should be treated as having been passed under that Act for purposes of execution.
  • Whether pending execution proceedings and related appeals should be transferred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the state arbitration tribunal under the 1983 Act.

Legislation cited

Subjects

arbitrationarbitral awardexecution of awardjurisdictionMadhya Pradesh Madhyastham Adhikaran Adhiniyamtransfer of proceedingsSupreme Court larger benchcivil appeal

Judgment

                        [2018] 4 S.C.R. 257                            257


              PURI CONSTRUCTIONS PVT. LTD.                             A
                                 v.
            STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH & ORS.
                  (Civil Appeal No. 4261 of 2018)
                          APRIL 18, 2018                               B
    [ADARSH KUMAR GOEL AND R. F. NARIMAN, JJ.]
      Madhya Pradesh Madhyastham Adhikaran Adhiniyam, 1983:
      Jurisdiction of Arbitration Tribunal – Award passed by
Arbitrator appointed by Delhi High Court – Execution of award          C
allowed – Appeal against the execution order pending before Delhi
High Court as the same had been deferred by High Court pending
decision of Supreme Court by Larger Bench in *L.G. Chaudhary
case – Held: In terms of decision by Larger Bench of Supreme Court,
the decision of the dispute between the parties has to be settled in
                                                                       D
accordance with the 1983 Act – In view of the fact that award was
passed long back and matter is pending for execution, it is directed
that award would be treated to have been passed under 1983 Act –
The pending proceedings before Delhi High Court transferred to
Madhya Pradesh High Court to be treated as Revision Petition under
1983 Act – The other pending proceedings shall be transferred to       E
Arbitration tribunal constituted under 1983 Act – Appeals disposed
of.
      Madhya Pradesh Rural Road Development Authority
      and Anr. v. L.G. Chaudhary Engineers and Contractors
      (2012) 2 SCC 495 : [2012] 2 SCR 162 – referred to.               F
                       Case Law Reference
      [2012] 2 SCR 162         referred to            Para 4
      CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 4261
of 2018.                                                               G
      From the Judgment and Order dated 19.07.2012 of the High Court
of Delhi at New Delhi in FAO (OS) No. 23 of 1998.
      Saurabh Mishra, AAG., Jugal Kishore Gilda, Purushaindra Kumar,
Advs. Gen., Naman Nagrath, Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Parag Triathi, Ms.
                                                                       H
                                257
258            SUPREME COURT REPORTS                          [2018] 4 S.C.R.


A     Kiran Suri, Sr. Advs., Harsh Parashar, Jubin Prasad, Aman Pandey,
      Jasdeep S. Dhillon, Prabhat K. Chaurasia, Ms. Renuka Sahu, Jay Savla,
      Amar Varun, Shantanu Krishna, Ms. Anusuya Salwan, Dhurav Mishra,
      Divyanshu Kumar Srivastav, Akash Lamba, Viren Sibal, Vivekananda
      B., Vikas Sood, Apporv Kurup, Ms. Isha Mital, Dr. Harsh Pathak,
      Ms. Shweta Mahajan, Mohit Chaubey, Siddharth Shukla, Neeraj Shekhar,
B
      Arjun Garg, Mishra Saurabh, Sridhar Potaraju, Sudhir Mishra, Prabhat
      Kumar, Ms. Petal Chandok, Ms. Ankita Sharma, Rishabh,
      M. R. Shamshad, Aditya Samaddar, B. S. Banthia, Ms. Swarupama
      Chaturvedi, Saurabh S. Sinha, Aditya Dev Triguna, Sunil Singh Parihar,
      M/S. AP & J Chambers, Prafulla Kumar Behera, Manish K. Bhardwaj,
C     S. S. Nehra, Ms. Anuradha Mishra, Ms. Vanshaja Shukla, Varun Mohan,
      Swastik Singh, Arjun Garg, Manish Yadav, Ms. Swarupama
      Chaturvedi, B.N. Dubey, Ms. Devika Gulati, Hitendra Nath Rath, Mayank
      Kshirsagar, Pavesh Joshi, Chavu Ambwani (For M/S. AP & J
      Chambers), B. K. Satija, Sumit Attri, K. Krishna Kumar, Hitendra Nath
      Rath, Nilava Bandyopadhayay, Rahul Pandey, Advs. for the appearing
D
      parties.
            The following Order of the Court was passed:
                                   ORDER
            1. Delay condoned. Leave granted.
E
            2. We have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the
      record.
            3. An agreement was executed between the parties on 11th May,
      1984 for construction of Assembly building in the State of Madhya
F     Pradesh. Dispute arose from the agreement. The High Court of Delhi
      appointed an arbitrator vide order dated 13th December, 1988. The
      Arbitrator gave the award on 21st June, 1989 which was made Rule of
      the Court by Delhi High Court on 28th September, 1989. Execution
      proceedings were taken by the appellant. Learned Single Judge allowed
      the execution vide Order dated 6th September, 1991 against which an
G     appeal was filed before the Division Bench of the High Court.
             4. The Division Bench vide order dated 5th July, 2012 directed
      that the enforceability of the decree will depend upon the fate of another
      appeal which was pending between the parties. The said appeal, FAO
      (OS)No.23/1998, is still pending but the High Court has deferred the
H
  PURI CONSTRUCTIONS PVT. LTD. v. STATE OF MADHYA                                259
                    PRADESH

same pending decision of larger Bench of this Court in pursuance of              A
judgment of this Court in Madhya Pradesh Rural Road Development
Authority and Anr. v. L.G. Chaudhary Engineers and Contractors, (2012)
3 SCC 495. It may be noted that the larger Bench has decided the
matter on 8th March, 2018. In terms of the said decision the dispute
between the parties has to be settled in accordance with the provisions
                                                                                 B
of the M.P. Madhyastham Adhikaran Adhiniyam, 1983 (M.P. Act).
       5. However, since in the present case the award has been
rendered long back which was not challenged by the respondents and
the matter is pending at the stage of execution, we direct that the award
be treated to have been rendered under the M.P. Act.
                                                                                 C
      6. In view of above, we transfer pending proceedings before Delhi
High Court being FAO (OS)NO.23/1998 and connected matters to High
Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur to be treated as revision petition
under the M.P. Act.
      7. Another dispute between the parties was referred to arbitration         D
vide order dated 19th May, 1993. However, before the arbitration
proceedings could be decided the arbitrators are said to have expired.
       8. In the circumstances pending Arbitration proceedings shall stand
transferred to the M.P. Arbitration Tribunal under the M.P. Act, to be
dealt with as per provisions of the M.P. Act in accordance with law.             E
The proceedings may be carried out in continuation of earlier proceedings.
       9. The parties may take steps by moving the High Court or any
other forum for transfer of records to the transferee courts in the light of
this Order.
       10. The appeal is accordingly disposed of.                                F
      11. The parties may appear before the High Court/Tribunal for
further proceedings on 9th July, 2018.


Kalpana K. Tripathy                                        Appeal disposed of.   G




                                                                                 H


Search Indian case law

Ask in plain English, not just keywords. 25,000 AI words free, no card.

Try "arbitration"Sign in to search

For a digitally signed copy suitable for filing, refer to the court's own website. Only the court can issue one.