- (1.) The petitioner has come with a two-fold grievance against an order or award of the West Bengal State Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council apparently rendered under the provisions of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006. The award has been made in favour of the respondent No. 2. The respondent No. 2 claims to have supplied services to the petitioner herein In connection with the socio economic survey of villages in Jharkhand under a programme by the name of Gram Bhagirathi Yojana. Upon the petitioner not making payment of the amount claimed by the second respondent, the second respondent applied to the Council under Section 18 of the said Act of 2006.
(2.) Section 15 of the said Act mandates that a buyer within the meaning of the said Act would pay the supplier within the meaning of the said Act within 15 days from the date of acceptance or deemed acceptance of any goods or services. The proviso to the section prohibits any agreement between a supplier and buyer to extend the period of payment beyond 45 days from the date of acceptance or deemed acceptance of the goods or services. Section 16 of the Act provides that upon the buyer failing to make the payment to the supplier in terms of Section 15 of the Act, the buyer would be liable to pay compound interest with monthly rests to the supplier on the amount due from the appointed day or the relevant date at three times of the bank rate notified by the Reserve Bank. Section 17 provides that a supplier would be entitled to recover both the principal and the interest under Section 16 of the Act from the buyer.
(3.) A claim by any party to a dispute with regard to any amount due under Section 17 of the Act is permitted to be carried to the Council under Section 18 of the Act. A supplier is defined under Section 2(n) of the Act as a micro or small enterprise which has filed a memorandum with the appropriate authority under Section 8 of the said Act. On receipt of a reference under Section 18(1) of the said Act, the Council is required to either conduct conciliation or seek the assistance of any institution providing alternate dispute resolution services by making a reference to such institution for conducting conciliation under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. Section 18(3) of the Act is of some relevance in the present context and reads as follows:-- Where the conciliation initiated under sub-section (2) is not successful and stands terminated without any settlement between the parties, the Council shall either itself take up the dispute for arbitration or refer it to any institution or centre providing alternate dispute resolution services for such arbitration and the provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (26 of 1996) shall then apply to the disputes as if the arbitration was in pursuance of an arbitration agreement referred to in sub-section (1) of section 7 of the Act.;