Ashis Kumar Chakraborty, J. - (1.) The Court : From the affidavit of service filed on behalf of the petitioner it appears that a copy of this application was forwarded to the respondent by Speed Post with A/d and the postal authority has returned the envelope with an endorsement "Refused". Accordingly, this application is taken up for hearing in the absence of the respondent. Let, the said affidavit of service be kept on record.
(2.) This is an application under Section 11(6) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, as amended by Act 3 of 2016 (in short "the Act of 1996") for appointment of an arbitrator to adjudicate the disputes raised by the petitioner against the respondent, relating to the contract dated February 19, 2009 and the General Conditions of Contract of 2008 issued by the respondent. Under the said contract the petitioner was to execute certain works at one of the Steel plants of the respondent namely, IISCO Steel Plant, Burnpur.
(3.) Clause 10.1 of the contract contained the arbitration agreement which is, for the sake of convenience, extracted below: "Arbitration (Reference GCC Clause 6) Any disputes, differences, whatsoever, arising between the parties out of or relating to the construction, meaning, scope, operation or effect of this Contract shall be settled between the Employer and the Contractor amicably. If, however, the Employer and the Contractor are not able to resolve their disputes / differences amicably as aforesaid the said disputes / differences shall be settled by conciliation, failing which, through Arbitration. Conciliation shall be resorted to prior to invoking Arbitration. The applicable rules for Conciliation proceedings shall be that of "SCOPE forum of Conciliation and Arbitration" (SCFA). The Arbitration Clause is to be invoked by the parties to the Contract only on failure of conciliation proceedings to amicably settle the disputes. The arbitration shall be governed and regulated in all respect according to the laws of India and the Arbitration proceedings shall be regulated and governed by Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 (ICA). The language of arbitration shall be English. The Arbitration shall be conducted as Adhoc Arbitration, where an impartial Arbitrator would be appointed by the Managing Director of the SAIL, ISP. The venue shall be the Burnpur. During the pendency of the conciliation or Arbitrations proceedings both the parties shall continue to perform their contractual obligations. The arbitral tribunal shall give reasons for its award. The tribunal shall apportion the cost of arbitration between the parties, the award rendered in any arbitration hereunder shall be final and binding upon the parties. The parties agree that neither party shall have any right to commence or maintain any suit or legal proceeding concerning any dispute under this agreement until the dispute has been determined in accordance with the arbitration proceeding provided for herein and then only to enforce or facilitate the execution of an award rendered in such arbitration. The court of Asansol, West Bengal, India (with exclusion of all other courts) shall have exclusive jurisdiction over all matter of dispute.";