A.N. Sen, J. - (1.) This is an application for setting aside an award made by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce. The Applicant is Shah Nanchand Anandji, a registered partnership firm carrying on business at Danapith, Bhavnager, in the State of Gujarat, who has been directed by the said award to pay a sum of Rs. 22,000 to Vegetable Products Ltd., the Respondent herein.
(2.) On June 10, 1964, the Applicant entered into an agreement in writing with the Respondent and by the said agreement the Applicant agreed to sell to the Respondent 55 metric tonnes of pure groundnut oil on terms and conditions mentioned in the said agreement. The Applicant had also entered into another contract with the Respondent on June 11, 1964, for sale to the Respondent another quantity of 55 metric tonnes of pure groundnut oil on terms and conditions mentioned in the said contract. Both the said contracts contain an arbitration clause in identical terms and the said arbitration clause reads as follows: All disputes arising on or out of this contract shall be referred at the option of the buyer either to the arbitration of two independent persons experienced in this trade (one to be nominated by each party) and an umpire to be chosen by them before proceeding with the arbitration or to the arbitration of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, Calcutta, or to the arbitration of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Calcutta and the decision of such arbitration shall be accepted as final and binding on both the parties to the contract. This reference to arbitration shall be deemed to be a submission under the Indian Arbitration Act. The award may at the instance of either party, with or without notice to either of them, be filed in the proper Court.
(3.) The Applicant Shah Nanchand Anandji, the seller, had not delivered the goods mentioned in the said contracts to the buyer Vegetable Products Ltd., the Respondent herein and disputes and differences had arisen between the parties out of the said contracts. The buyer Vegetable Products Limited, the Respondent herein, had referred the said disputes to the arbitration of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Calcutta. Two references had been made by the buyer, Vegetable Products Ltd., to Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Calcutta, in respect of the disputes arising out of the two contracts between the parties. On the said two references Bengal Chamber of Commerce made two separate awards. This application is concerned with the validity of the award made by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce on September 21, 1966, in case No. 231 of 1965, being award No. 155 of 1966 dated September 21, 1966. Another application has been made by the seller Shah Nanchand Anandji challenging the validity of the other award made in the other reference in respect of the contract dated June 11, 1964. That is the other application which was on my list immediately after this application. The parties agree that identical questions are involved in both the applications and the decision in the present application will govern the other case.;