Chakravartti, C.J. - (1.) This is an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court from a decision of a three-Judge Bench of this Court, dated January 28, 1953, to which an application for declaring a certain award to be a nullity had been referred under Chapter V, Rule 2 of the Rules of the Original Side and by which the application was finally disposed of. The amount of the award was Rs. 1,95,000 and by the final order of this Court the award was declared to be null and void and the arbitration agreement on which the award was founded was declared to be invalid. The present application is for leave to appeal from that decision.
(2.) It is not necessary to state the facts of the case except that the amount of the award was Rs. 1,95,000. The respondent to the proposed appeal, namely, the Albion Jute Mills Company Limited, wanted by its application to have that award declared null and void and by the success of the application got rid of its liability for the said amount. In the proposed appeal to the Supreme Court, the intending appellant asks the award to be restored and if it succeeds, a liability for the amount of the award will be reimposed on the respondent, whereas the appellant will benefit by a like amount. There cannot, therefore, be any question that the amount or value of the subject-matter of the dispute in the court of first instance and still in dispute on appeal was and is not less than twenty thousand rupees within the meaning of Article 133(1) (a) of the Constitution.
(3.) It was, however, contended by Mr. Sethia that there were several reasons why the application could not be allowed. He contended, in the first instance, that the order made was on an application under section 33 of the Arbitration Act from which no appeal lay under section 39. He therefore contended that to grant leave to appeal to the Supreme Court would be to defeat the provisions of the Act. That contention is plainly untenable, because the right of appeal to the Supreme Court under Article 133 does not depend upon an appeal lying under the particular Act which is concerned in the litigation proposed to be taken up on appeal. No provision in the Arbitration Act can possibly override the Constitution.;