NATIONAL SMALL INDUSTRIES CORPORATION LIMITED Vs. R SIEGWARD AND SOHN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) (Oral).

(2.) THE provisions of section 34 of the Indian Arbitration Act come in for detailed consideration because it is the aid of that provision which has been sought by defendant No. 1 through I. .A. No. 1361 of 1969 insuit Mo. 397 of 1967. THE prayer, of course, is that the subject matter of the suit is referrable to Arbitration and that the Court should exercise its discretion to stay the suit. Before I refer to the plaint in the suit I find it necessary to deal with the allegations contained in the aforesaid application made under section 34 of the Arbitration Act itself. That application in paragraph 2 thereof states that it was on the 21st July, 1969 that the written statement on behalf of defendant No. 4 was filed and it was required of defendants No. 1, 2 and 3 that their written statements be filed on or before the 11th August, 1969.

(3.) I have heard Mr. Gulati the learned counsel for defendant No. I but it is mostly on account of the view taken by me at the outset that I hold that such a bar did not arise at all and the defendant No. 1 could prefer the present application. A mere reading of the statutory provisions contained in section 34 of the Arbitration Act is enough to support me in my observation that even a defendant against whom an order is recorded that the proceedings will be ex parte qus. him does not loose the right to present the application under section 34 which action he will be performing not under the provisions of Civil Procedure Code but in terms of the rights conferred statutorily through the Indian Arbitration Act wherein section 34 stands by itself. With that finding I disagree with the preliminary objection raised by the learned counsel for the plaintiff.