- (1.) Heard Sri Udai Chandani, learned counsel for the applicant and Sri Siddharth Singh, learned counsel appearing for the opposite parties. The application has been filed under Section 11(5) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 for settlement of dispute as per the arbitration clause contained in Section 16 of the Franchise Agreement dated 8.10.2004. The application is being opposed by the opposite parties that in view of Section 16 of the agreement the Courts of Mumbai will have exclusive jurisdiction in respect of this agreement, thus, this Court shall have no jurisdiction to entertain the application.
(2.) Learned counsel for the applicant submits that he has already filed Arbitration Case No. 50 of 2007, (M/s. Banaras Auto Traders and others v. M/s. Reliance Web Stores Ltd. and others) before the Court of District Judge, Varanasi for injunction to restrain the opposite parties from terminating the Franchise Agreement dated 8.10.2004 further restraining the opposite parties from interfering in the functioning the petitioner as Franchise under the said agreement. The opposite parties have appeared in the arbitration case before the District Judge, Varanasi and raised objection regarding jurisdiction of the Court as the parties had agreed that the Courts of Mumbai shall have exclusive jurisdiction in the matter. Learned counsel for the parties submit that the arbitration case is still pending before the Varanasi Court.
(3.) The submission of learned counsel for the applicant is that Section 42 of the Act inter alia provides that when an application has been made in the Court, that Court alone shall have jurisdiction over the arbitral proceedings and all subsequent applications arising out of that agreement and the subsequent proceedings shall be made in that Court and in no other Court.;