Arbitration Case No. 139 of 2008 [1] IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Arbitration Case No. 139 of 2008 Date of Decision: 27.04.2010 M/s Madan Gopal and Associates ..Petitioner Versus Punjab Urban Planning & Development Authority ..Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MUKUL MUDGAL, CHIEF JUSTICE 1.Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. Whether to be referred to the Reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? Present :- Mr. Anil K.Aggarwal, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Naresh Parbhakar, Advocate for the respondent. *** MUKUL MUDGAL, C.J. (Oral) 1. This petition has been filed by the petitioner under Section 11(6) of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996 (for short ' the Act), for appointment of a sole Arbitrator to adjudicate upon the disputes between the parties. 2. Clause 25-A of the agreement contains the Arbitration Clause which reads as under:- “Clause 25-A: If any question, difference or objection whatsoever shall arise in any way connected with or arising out of this instalment or the meaning or operation Arbitration Case No. 139 of 2008 [2] of any part thereof or the rights duties, or liabilities of either party then save in so far as the decision of any such matter is hereinbefore provided for and has been so decided, every such matter including whether its decision has been otherwise provided for and or whether it has been finally decided accordingly or whether the contractor should be terminated or has been rightly terminated and as regards the rights and obligations of the parties as the result of such termination shall be referred for arbitration to the Superintending Engineer, Punjab Housing Development Board, acting as such at the time of reference within 180 days or 6 months from the payment of final bill or written notice issued to the contractor that his bill is ready for payment and his decision shall be final and binding and whether the matter involves a claim for or the payment or recovery or deduction of money only the amount, if any, avoided in such arbitration shall be recoverable in respect of the matter so referred. If the matter is not referred to arbitration within the specified period, all the rights and claims under the contractor shall be deemed to have forfeited and absolutely barred.” 3. Upon notice, the respondent put in appearance through its Advocate Shri Naresh Parbhakar, who states that appointment of Arbitrator was not required because there was a named Arbitrator under clause 25-A of the agreement and the petitioner if had any dispute, should have approached to the said Arbitrator but he has not done so till date. Mr. Parbhakar further states that petitioner can even now approach to the said Arbitrator for settlement of his dispute. Faced with this situation, learned counsel for the petitioner states that petitioner has no objection if the dispute is referred to the arbitration of Superintending Engineer, Punjab Urban Development Authority which was formerly known as Punjab Housing Development Board. Learned counsel for the petitioner further states that as many as 9 Superintending Engineers are there in the Punjab Urban Development Authority so the respondents be directed to name one of the Superintending Engineers to be appointed Arbitrator so that the petitioner could appear before him. Arbitration Case No. 139 of 2008 [3] 4. Learned counsel for the respondent states that the respondent shall name one of the Superintending Engineers of PUDA who will arbitrate the dispute not later than four weeks from today. 5. In view of the statements of the parties, this petition is disposed of with a direction to Punjab Urban Development Authority to name one of the Superintending Engineers who shall arbitrate the dispute within a period of four weeks from today. In the meanwhile, the parties will exchange the statements of claim and response thereof. The statement of claim be supplied to counsel for the respondent within four weeks and response to the statement of claim shall be supplied to the counsel for the petitioner within four weeks thereafter. The parties shall appear before the Arbitrator to be named by PUDA on 2.8.2010 at 4.00 P.M. or on an agreed date convenient to the parties but not later than a fortnight from the date of exchange of pleadings as directed aforesaid. The Arbitrator shall dispose of the reference not later than six months from the date of first appearance of the parties. (MUKUL MUDGAL) CHIEF JUSTICE 27.04.2010 'ravinder'