- (1.) This is an appeal filed upon a certificate of fitness granted by the High Court of Calcutta impugning the judgment pronounced by the said High Court on January 23, 1953, declaring null and void an award (No. 209 of 1952) made by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce in case No. 855 of 1951 whereby they ordered the respondent company to pay to the appellant company a sum of Rs. 1,95,000 besides interest and costs.
(2.) The facts giving rise to the present appeal are simple and may briefly be summarised as follows : On April 6, 1951, the appellant company entered into a contract with the respondent company for the supply of 5000 maunds of Nikhil and/or Ashuganj pate on certain prices according to quality, "shipment during July and/or August, 1951, guaranteed." That contract, which was entered into by bought and sold notes exchanged between the parties through brokers, contained a very wide arbitration clause. When shipping documents were presented to the respondent company by the bankers of the appellant company, they were not honoured on the plea that the same were not in order and the respondent company failed to take delivery of the goods. The last date on which the documents were so presented was September 17, 1951. On September 26, 1951, the appellant company, through their solicitors, wrote to the respondent company intimating that they had exercised their option of cancelling the contract and demanding the payment of the sum of Rs. 1,95,000 as damages on the basis of the difference between the contract price and the market price of the goods as on September 17, 1951. The respondent company having by their letter dated October 25, 1951, denied their liability to pay any amount, the appellant company on November 2, 1951 referred the dispute to the arbitration of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce in terms of the Arbitration clause contained in that contract. The respondent company submitted to the jurisdiction of the Tribunal of arbitration by appearing and adducing evidence before it. On February 29, 1952, the arbitrators made their award by which they allowed the claim of the appellant company in full with interest and costs. The award having been filed in the Calcutta High Court on April 23, 1952, the respondent company on June 9, 1952, filed an application in that Court praying, inter alia, that the award be declared null and void and be set aside. The main ground urged in that application was that the award was a nullity in that the contract containing the arbitration clause was void under the provisions of the Raw Jute (Central Jute Board and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1951 (W. Ben. VI of 1951) which was then in force. In order to appreciate the points raised before the High Court and before us it is necessary at this stage to refer to some of the statutory provisions bearing on the question.
(3.) To regulate the prices of jute and to empower the Government to fix its maximum prices, the West Bengal Legislature passed an Act called the West Bengal Jute (Control of Prices) Act (W. Ben. VI of 1950) which came into force on March 15, 1950. On December 14, 1950 the Government of West Bengal promulgated an Ordinance called the Raw Jute (Central Jute Board and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance, 1950 (W. Ben. XVII of 1950) for the better regulation of the jute trade. The preamble to that Ordinance recited that, as the owners of jute mills were not being able to secure adequate supplies of jute on the maximum prices fixed under the West Bengal Jute (Control of Prices) Act, 1950, it had become expedient to set up a Central Jute Board in West Bengal or ensuring an equitable supply of raw jute to the owners of the jute mills. That Ordinance consisted of only 15 sections. Section 4 of that Ordinance provided for the constitution of the Central Jute Board. Section 5 was expressed in the following terms : "5. (1) No person shall sell or agree to sell raw jute to the owner of a jute-mill and no owner of a jute mill shall buy or agree to buy, raw jute save and except in pursuance of a contract for the sale or the supply of raw jute entered into in the manner provided in section 6. (2) Any contract entered into for the sale or the supply of raw jute with the owner of a jute-mill save and except in the manner provided in section 6 shall be void and of no effect. (3) Any person contravening the provisions of sub-section (1) shall be guilty of an offence under this Ordinance and shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to six months or with fine or with both." Section 6 laid down the manner in which all contracts for the sale or supply of raw jute with the owners of jute mills were to be entered into. Section 7 ran as follows : "7. (1) No person shall deliver or cause to be delivered to the owner of a jute mill and no owner of a jute-mill shall accept or cause to be accepted any raw jute save and except in pursuance of a contract for the sale or the supply of raw Jute entered into in the manner provided in section 6. (2) Any person contravening the provisions of sub-section (1) shall be guilty of an offence under this Ordinance and shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to six months or with fine or with both. (3) The provisions of section 5, section 6, and this section shall have effect on and from the appointed day." The expression "appointed day" occurring in S. 7(3) quoted above was thus defined in S. 2 (1) of that Ordinance: "2 (1) 'appointed day' means the date specified by the State Government by notification in the Official Gazette as the appointed day for the purpose of this Ordinance" ; By a notification dated December 29, 1950, published in an extraordinary issue of the Calcutta Gazette of the same date, December 30, 1950, was specified as "the appointed day for the purposes of Ss. 5, 6 and 7 of the said Ordinance.";