- (1.) This appeal is filed against the judgment passed by District Judge, Jalandhar on 19.5.2011, whereby the objection petition under Section 34 and application under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act (Act for short) filed by the appellant was dismissed.
(2.) The back-drop of the case is that the appellant had submitted twelve claims to the appropriate authority i.e. Engineer-in-Chief, New Delhi, for appointing an Arbitrator for settling the dispute between the parties. The Appointing Authority instead of referring all the claims to the Arbitrator, namely, Mr. T.K. Saha, directed the Arbitrator to adjudicate ten claims only, the detail of which was appended with his appointment letter. Two claims, which were major ones, therefore, stood excluded from the reference to the Arbitrator on the plea that those were excepted matters. Since the Arbitrator was empowered to decide his jurisdiction under Section 16 of the Act, the appellant put up the two excluded claims before the Arbitrator but the latter declared those to be beyond jurisdiction as they were not referred to him. The said decision of the Arbitrator was challenged in the District Court, Jalandhar but the petition of the appellant was dismissed.
(3.) The appellant, therefore, filed a petition under Section 11 of the Act before this Court praying that the Appointing Authority be directed to refer the two left out claims as well, for adjudication of the Arbitrator. This court directed the respondent to refer the dispute to the Arbitrator and accordingly the claims were referred to new Arbitrator Mr. Baljit Singh. Both the parties submitted their claims. The respondent took an objection that the two claims submitted later on were beyond the jurisdiction of Arbitrator as those were excepted matters and decision in that regard is given by the Accepting Officer.;