UDAY UMESH LALIT,J. - (1.) Rejection of application preferred by the appellant under Section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 ("1996 Act" for short) as affirmed by the High Court of Bombay at Nagpur by its judgment and order dated 10.12.2015 in Civil Revision Application No.88 of 2015, is under challenge in this appeal.
(2.) The appellant and the respondents had entered into a Partnership Agreement dated 09.11.2005. Clause 15 of said Partnership Agreement was as under: "15) That in case of any dispute between the partners as regards interpretation of this Deed or any other matter connected with the partnership business, the same shall be referred to for arbitration in accordance with the provisions of Indian Arbitration Act, 1940, and the decision of the Arbitrator shall be final and binding on all the partners."
(3.) The appellant had also executed a registered Power of Attorney on 28.12.2006 in favour of the partners. In April 2014 the respondents filed Special Civil Suit No.16 of 2014 in the Court of Civil Judge, Senior Division, Bhandara for declaration, damages, accounts and permanent injunction against the appellant. Soon after receipt of the notice, the appellant preferred an application under Section 8 of 1996 Act to refer the dispute to arbitration in view of aforesaid clause 15 in the Partnership Agreement. The matter was contested. The Trial Court rejected said application by its order dated 05.01.2015. It was held that aforesaid clause 15 was vague, that there was no reference as to who should be the arbitrator, that there was no mention about selection of the arbitrator and that the dispute did not form subject matter of agreement within the meaning of Section 8 of 1996 Act.;