Mir Dara Sheko, J. - (1.) Heard Mr. Sujash Ghosh Dastidar, being assisted by Ms. Sankari Roy, learned Counsel representing the petitioners.
(2.) This application under Article 227 of the Constitution of India has been directed assailing the order No. 4 dated July 01, 2016 passed in miscellaneous application, being No. MA/552/2016 arose in connection with Complaint Case No. CC/58/2016 filed by the opposite parties before the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, West Bengal. Admit.
(3.) Mr. Ghosh Dastidar invited attention of this Court to paragraph 4 of the application that on the very first date of appearance of his client one application was took out under Sections 5 and 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 to attract attention of the State Consumer Forum to the Arbitration Clause No. 16 of the arbitration agreement. Copy of the arbitration agreement also has been furnished along with this revisional application. Grievance is ventilated since the despite of having no dispute principally as against the prayer for referring the matter to arbitration by the opposite party in their written objection the State Consumer Forum declined such prayer. The relevant portion of the impugned order is quoted below :- "The learned Counsel for the Complainant has submitted that it has been well settled that the Consumer Fora are not bound to refer the dispute to arbitration and the consumer complaint is maintainable in this Commission. We have heard the submission made by both sides and perused the papers on record. In the decision reported in 2013 (2) CPR [DLF Ltd. Vs. Mridul Estate (Pvt.) Ltd. & Ors.] it has been held lthat the Consumer Fora constituted under the C.P. Act are not bound to refer the dispute raised in the complaint on an application filed u/s 8 of the Arbitration Act, 1996 seeking reference of the dispute to an Arbitral Tribunal in terms of valid arbitration clause in the agreement entered into between the parties. Relying on the aforesaid decision, we are of the view that there is no merit in this Miscellaneous Application.";