J.M. SWAMY Vs. GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is before this Court seeking for the following reliefs:

(2.) The petitioner having participated in a tender, had been awarded certain works in pursuance of which the work order dtd. 23/1/2017 came to be issued and an agreement dtd. 15/2/2017 came to be executed between the parties, wherein the settlement of disputes and arbitration is governed by a rather long dispute resolution clause in terms of Clause 25 thereof which is reproduced hereunder for easy reference:

(3.) There being certain disputes that arose between the parties, the petitioner had written a letter dtd. 22/5/2020 for settlement of claim/disputes as per the aforesaid Clause 25 of the conditions of the contract. Respondent No.1 rejected this vide letter dtd. 12/6/2020. The petitioner thereafter referred the disputes to Superintending Engineer vide letter dtd. 12/6/2020, but there was no reply from the Superintending Engineer, as such referred the claims/disputes to the respondent No.2 for settlement. Respondent No.2 also rejected the claims of the petitioner vide letter dtd. 14/7/2020. The petitioner thereafter, vide letter dtd. 17/7/2020, wrote to respondent No.2 for appointment of DRC Member not connected with the respondents. Respondent No.2 referred the disputes/claims to the Dispute Redressal Committee vide its letter dtd. 12/8/2020. The petitioner had filed proceedings in Commercial A.A. No.75/2020 under Sec. 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 ['A&C Act' for short] seeking interim protection. Thereafter, the claims made by the petitioner to the DRC were rejected on 11/1/2021. Hence, the petitioner had approached respondent No.2 on 18/1/2021 for the appointment of an impartial independent arbitrator. Thus from the time dispute arose, it took nearly 8 months for the petitioner to even seek for appointment of an Arbitrator.