Ashwani Kumar Mishra, J. - (1.) This application has been filed under Section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 for reference of dispute to arbitrator, which is said to have arisen between the applicant and the respondent no. 1 company.
(2.) As per the averments made in the affidavit, filed in support of the application, the applicant, which is a partnership concern, was appointed as a distributor of the respondent company in the year 2005. Pursuant to it, it proceeded to distribute mobile phones of the respondent company in its area. Various sale invoices etc. have been brought on record to indicate that the applicant continued to perform function of distributor since the year 2005. It is further stated in the affidavit that in the year 2009, respondent no. 6 was appointed as zonal distributor of respondent no. 1 company. It is alleged that one Shantanu Singh, acting on behalf of respondent no. 1 company, sent a draft agreement to the applicant with a request to sign it and sent the same with requisite stamp. This letter dated 10.8.2009 alogwith the draft agreement has been brought on record as Annexure -1 to this affidavit. This draft agreement contains an arbitration clause. The applicant submits that it had sent the duly signed draft agreement as per the direction contained in the letter dated 10.8.2009 to the company. The applicant states that it continued to act as the distributor and for such purposes subsequent transactions and monthly reports have been brought on record.
(3.) It is claimed that the distributorship of the applicant was terminated on 25.5.2012 which gave rise to a dispute between the parties. The applicant sent a notice in terms of Clause-12 of the agreement, requiring the respondent company to appoint an arbitrator. This notice was replied by the company, stating that there is no previty of contract between the parties nor there exists any arbitration agreement, pursuant to which an arbitrator could be appointed. Aggrieved by such action, the applicant has filed the present application for appointing an arbitrator.;