FAO No. 3259 of 2010 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. FAO NO. 3259 OF 2010 (O & M) Date of Decision: 18.11.2010. Punjab State Warehousing Corporation Ltd .......Appellant Vs. M/s Friends Rice & General Mills and others ....Respondents CORAM: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rajesh Bindal Present: Ms. Deepali Puri, Advocate for the appellant. ..... RAJESH BINDAL, J. This appeal is directed against the order of learned District Judge, Gurdaspur dated 7.8.2009 by which the application filed by the Punjab State Warehousing Corporation Limited (hereinafter to be referred as “the Corporation”) under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (for short 'the Act') for setting aside the arbitral award dated 18.10.2004 was partly allowed and the agreement was held to be not valid. Briefly the facts of the case are that an agreement dated 22.9.1994 was signed by Tarsem Singh, Warehouse Manager on behalf of the appellant Corporation and by respondents No.1 to 3 for custom milling of paddy and delivery of resultant rice to the Food Corporation of India in the account of the appellant Corporation. According to the appellant Corporation, the private respondents did not comply with the terms and conditions of the agreement, resultantly a dispute arose between the parties. An arbitrator was appointed and the parties submitted their statements of accounts. The arbitrator vide his award dated 18.10.2004 awarding an amount of ` 7,61,986.83 in favour of the FAO No. 3259 of 2010 -2- private respondents. The application filed by the appellant under Section 34 of the Act before the court below was partly allowed and the agreement between the parties was held to be not valid and the relief granted to the private respondents was set aside. Learned counsel for the appellant submitted that the finding of the learned court below that the agreement dated 22.9.1994 was not signed by the parties, was against the facts and evidence led on behalf of the Corporation. The appellant in evidence had produced on record agreement duly signed by Tarsem Singh, the then Warehouse Manager, State Warehousing Corporation, Quadian, who was the incharge of the aforesaid centre. The submission was to set aside the award of the arbitrator and acceptance of agreement dated 22.9.1994. After hearing learned counsel for the parties and perusing the paper book, I do not find any merint in the appeal. The alleged agreement was not signed on behalf of Corporation/Governor of Punjab, the representative of Corporation i.e. Manager, Warehouse Croporation singed the agreement only as witness, as such the said document is not an agreement neither as per Section 7 of the Act nor as per Contract Act. Not only this even the original thereof was not produced on record. Therefore, the Lower Court rightly has not considered the said agreement. The benefit granted by the arbitrator to the respondent was thus legally set-aside by the Lower Court because the arbitrator cannot be appointed in absence of a valid agreement and cannot grant any relief to the parties before him. No interference by this court is warranted. The appeal is thus dismissed. (RAJESH BINDAL) Judge 18.11.2010 gp FAO No. 3259 of 2010 -3-