Indu Malhotra, J. - (1.) The present Miscellaneous Application has been filed by the Appellant - MTNL in Civil Appeal No. 6202-05 of 2019 which was disposed of vide Judgment and Order dated 08.08.2019 passed by this Court directing that CANFINA - a wholly owned subsidiary of Respondent No. 1 - Canara Bank be impleaded in the arbitral proceedings pending between the parties. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Counsel for the Appellant had made an oral submission to refer the matter to the Administrative Mechanism for Resolution of CPSEs Disputes (AMRCD). This Court however took note that on two earlier occasions, the matter had been referred to the Committee of Disputes of the Permanent Machinery of Arbitration (PMA), on 27.03.2001 and subsequently on 30.05.2008. On both these occasions, the disputes remained unresolved, which also led to loss of time in resolution of the disputes. Since the disputes had been pending for over 25 years, this Court remitted the matter to be resolved through the pending arbitration.
(2.) The Appellants have now filed the present application for reference of the disputes between the parties to the Administrative Mechanism for Resolution of CPSEs Disputes (AMRCD) in substitution of the arbitral tribunal.
(3.) The Government of India has now set up the AMRCD, which has replaced the Permanent Machinery of Arbitration (PMA). The objective of the AMRCD is to bring about a time bound settlement of commercial disputes between Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) interse and CPSE and Government Departments/Organizations. Under this new mechanism, the structure for settlement of disputes is that at the first tier, the commercial disputes shall be referred to a Committee comprising of the Secretaries of the Administrative Ministries/Departments to which the disputing CPSEs/Parties belong and the Secretary of the Department of Legal Affairs. In case the dispute remains unresolved, it will be referred in the second tier to the Cabinet Secretary, whose decision will be final and binding on all the parties concerned.;