ARUN BHANSALI,J. - (1.) Reportable This application under section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 ('the Act of 1996') has been filed by the applicant seeking appointment of appropriate arbitrator to resolve and settle the dispute between the parties.
(2.) The applicant, who is a custom house agent and carrying on its business of clearing goods from various ports, entered into the agreements dated 26/6/2003 and 30/6/2004 (Annex.2 and Annex.3 respectively), with the respondent company, who is a manufacturer of zinc at its various projects in India. It is claimed that pursuant to the agreements, based on the activities undertaken by the applicant, as on 20/4/2011 a sum of Rs. 1,89,28,120.72P. was outstanding and payable by the respondent to the applicant. When notice issued in this regard was not satisfactorily responded, the applicant filed a suit no.1723/2011 before the Bombay High Court. In the suit, the respondent filed an application questioning the maintainability of the suit at Mumbai based on exclusive jurisdiction clause contained in the agreement. The application was allowed by order dated 7/12/2016, whereby, the plaint was ordered to be returned to the plaintiff to be filed in the appropriate court at Udaipur. Relevant portion of the order dated 7/12/2016 reads as under: "13. In view of the exclusive jurisdiction clause, the plaint is returned to the plaintiff to be filed in the appropriate court at Udaipur. All the contentions of the parties, including limitation are kept open. 14. The counsel for the plaintiff requests this court to fix a date for the appearance of the parties in which the plaint is proposed to be presented under Order 7, Rule 10(a) of the Code of Civil Procedure. The parties to appear before the appropriate court in Udaipur on 13th February, 2017. 15. The plaintiff to give notice of less than three weeks before 13th February, 2017 informing the defendant with the details of the court and the address where the plaint is going to be presented with the newly assigned suit number."
(3.) Pursuant to the order dated 7/12/2016, the applicant presented the suit before the District Judge, Udaipur on 3/2/2017.;