- (1.) This is an appeal u/s. 39 of the Arbitration Act, 1940, against the order passed by the learned District Judge, Jaipur City, appointing the Chairman, Rajasthan State Text Book Board, Jaipur (in short 'the Board') as an Arbitrator, in accordance with clause 37 of the tender notice and to decide the disputes regarding agreement, within four months after giving notice to the parties and hearing them. It has also been ordered that in case this order is not complied with within one month, Shri Govind Lal Sharma, Retired Distt. & Sessions Judge, is appointed as Arbitrator between the parties to decide the disputes between them.
(2.) As per the facts mentioned in the memo of appeal the appellant Proprietor of firm M/s. Kalawati Stofes entered into an agreement with the Board for supply of printing paper on 27.1.1990, in pursuance of acceptance of his tender which was invited vide advertisement dated 17.10.1989. The appellant supplied papers to the Board but the Board deducted a sum of Rs. 1,10,242.48 paise on the ground of delay in supply and also imposed a penalty of Rs. 2,21,717.18 on the ground of poor quality of paper. On the other hand, the appellant demanded a sum of Rs. 2,16,160.69 on account of supply of goods white paper and in total, the payment claimed was to the tune of Rs. 5,48,122.01. Since the matter could not be settled amicably, the appellant gave a notice through his counsel on 4.12.1990 requesting the Chairman of the Board to kindly refer the matter for arbitration as envisaged by Clause 37 of the tender notice and to initiate arbitration proceedings without any further delay. A reply to the above notice was sent by the Board to the appellant on 19.12.1990 that after the acceptance of payment by the appellant, no dispute survived and since there was no dispute surviving, no reference could be made for arbitration under Clause 37 of the tender notice. After the receipt of this reply, the appellant filed an application purported to be u/s. 8 and 20 of the Arbitration Act, 1940 in the court of District Judge, Jaipur City, praying that the Board should be directed to file the agreement in court and the matter may be referred to an independent and impartial Arbitrator as the parties have failed to get the matter resolved through Arbitrator.
(3.) A reply to the said petition was filed before the learned District Judge asserting that there is no dispute between the parties and therefore, there is no question of appointing any Arbitrator. In the alternative, it was also pleaded that if the court feels that some dispute has arisen and still survives, the Board of Directors of the Board is authorised to appoint and Arbitrator, for which the Board was ready and willing. After hearing arguments, learned Distt. Judge allowed the said petition and directed the Chairman of the Board, in accordance with clause 37 of the tender notice, to decide the dispute with regard to agreement within four months after giving notice to the parties and hearing them and in case this order is not complied with within one month, Shri Govind Lal Sharma, retired District Judge is appointed as an Arbitrator between the parties to decide the dispute between them. It is against this order that the present appeal has been filed.;