Case: M/S OSWAL WOOLLEN MILLS LTD Vs. M/S OSWAL AGRO MILLS LTD

the application that is filed before the High Court to which the appellant-Company was referring to in the said letter was an application filed under Section 5 of the Act for the dispute relating to quantum of fee of the Umpire. Though the appellant-Company in the said letter made a note with regard to the de novo hearing of the matter but the same seems to be an additional armory that the appellant is putting behind its back as it hasn?t demanded de novo trial of the said matter neither in the communication nor thereafter in the proceedings. The appellant-Company next referred to communication dated 12.01.2000 but the same is also with regard to the pending proceedings before the High Court. It is only on 29.01.2000 that the appellant-Company has filed an application for de novo hearing of the case i.e., at a stage where the final arguments on the side of the respondent-Company have been finished and the date was fixed for final argument from the side of appellant-Company. If the appellant-Company was serious in its endeavor that it should get an opportunity to get the evidence recorded afresh, an application could easily have been filed before starting the proceedings before the Umpire. It is only from oblique references that the appellant-Company seeks to derive such intent. This aspect is clearly an afterthought which arose during the culmination of the proceedings before the Umpire. Further, even the sum and substance of the highly belated application dated 29.01.2000 for commencement of proceedings de novo clearly shows that it was not asking for re-hearing/re-recording of the evidence but was actually requesting for review of the order of the two Arbitrators especially for re-examination of Shri K.L. Jain. It is the case of the appellant-Company that the Arbitrators were wrong in permitting production of some other witness, by name, Shri Vijay Gupta instead of Shri K.L Jain. From the above, there is no doubt that the conduct of the appellant-Company amounts to waiver and the application filled on 29.01.2000 is nothing but trying a last armory to turn the case around. The Umpire was right in dismissing the said application. 18. Learned senior counsel for the appellant-Company contended on merits of the case, however, the law is well settled with regard to the scope and ambit of the jurisdiction of the courts to interfere with an arbitration award as has been settled in a catena of judgments of this Court and it would be sufficient to quote Ravindra Kumar Gupta and Company vs. Union of India (2010) 1 SCC 409 wherein it was held as under:-?9. The law with regard to scope and ambit of the jurisdiction of the courts to interfere with an arbitration award has been settled in a catena of judgments of this Court. We may make a reference here only to some of the judgments. In State of Rajasthan v. Puri Construction Co. Ltd. this Court observed as follows: ?26. The arbitrator is the final arbiter for the dispute between the parties and it is not open to challenge the award on the ground that the arbitrator has drawn his own conclusion or has failed to appreciate the facts. In Sudarsan Trading Co. v. Govt. of Kerala it has been held by this Court that there is a distinction between disputes as to the jurisdiction of the arbitrator and the disputes as to in what way that jurisdiction should be exercised. There may be a conflict as to the power of the arbitrator to grant a particular remedy. One has to determine the distinction between an error within the jurisdiction and an error in excess of the jurisdiction. Court cannot substitute its own evaluation of the conclusion of law or fact to come to the conclusion that the arbitrator had acted contrary to the bargain between the parties. (emphasis in original) Whether a particular amount was liable to be paid is a decision within the competency of the arbitrator. By purporting to construe the contract the court cannot take upon itself the burden of saying that this was contrary to the contract and as such beyond jurisdiction. If on a view taken of a contract, the decision of the arbitrator on certain amounts awarded is a possible view though perhaps not the only correct view, the award cannot be examined by the court. Where the reasons have been given by the arbitrator in making the award the court cannot examine the reasonableness of the reasons. If the parties have selected their own forum, the deciding forum must be conceded the power of appraisement of evidence. The arbitrator is the sole judge of the quality as well as the quantity of evidence and it will not be for the court to take upon itself the task of being a Judge on the evidence before the arbitrator.?19. In Municipal Corporation of Delhi vs. Jagan Nath Ashok Kumar and Another (1987) 4 SCC 497 , it was held by this Court that appraisement of evidence by the arbitrator is ordinarily never a matter which the court questions and considers. It may be possible that on the same evidence, the court may arrive at a different conclusion than the one arrived at by the arbitrator but that by itself is no ground for setting aside the award. 20. Following the above judgments, we are of the opinion that the question of whether the claims were tenable or not are based on the contract and which of them had to be granted were within the exclusive domain of the Arbitrators. In this case, the Award considered the totality of circumstances, and weighed the relevant facts on balance while proceeding to award damages. The award does not disclose a manifestly erroneous approach; nor does it omit to consider and apply legal principles to the facts presented before the Arbitrators. 21. In view of the above discussion, we do not find any infirmity or error in the approach and judgments passed by the courts below.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 0

Explanation:
0[ds]Either going by the very nature of functions entrusted to the Umpire or by the provisions of the First Schedule, it is crystal clear that there is no qualitative difference between the Arbitrators and the Umpire with regard to the methodology and modalities to be adopted for reaching a just and fair conclusion. It is trite to say that an Arbitrator is bound to observe the principles of natural justice and conform to the fundamentals of judicial procedure. It is his duty to afford a reasonable opportunity to the parties concerned. However, it would also be illogical to contend that the Umpire has to start de novo ipso facto. The very essence of the law of arbitration is to settle the matter efficiently in a time bound manner. Hence, when the Umpire enters upon a Reference and replaces the arbitrators, he is needed to review the evidence and submissions only on those matters about which the arbitrators have disagreed unless either party applies for the rehearing of the evidence of the parties or their witnesses. The Umpire can surely go through the evidence recorded by the previous arbitrators but without being influenced by the opinion expressed by them in that regard and even the notes taken by previous arbitrators can be relied if there exist special provisions in the agreement permitting him to do so. However, if the party makes an application for de novo hearing, the Umpire is bound to allow the same, subject to the condition that the application is made at the earliest and the applicant is not using it as last armory to turn the case around. An objection on the ground that the Umpire has not reheard the evidence may be waived by the conduct of the parties; the evidence already recorded before the previous arbitrator would remain valid and it would not be open for the parties to get the same recorded afresh later on. It is a well settled proposition that where a party seeking to impeach an Award has made no application to the Umpire for rehearing of the evidence, the same would generally operate as a waiver by conduct.inevitable outcome of the same is that a party is allowed to overcome the lacuna in the evidence already recorded before the previous arbitrators. Further, it would give an unnecessary option to the dishonest litigant to obliterate the evidence already recorded which would have adverse effect on them. Further, the witnesses to be examined afresh is a glaring anomaly that would ensue that the witnesses may not be available or might give a totally different version or a version inconsistent with their previous version, owing to the fact of faded memories. Such an interpretation of the word de novo trial would result in undue hardship to the parties and will defeat the very purpose of the Act and render arbitration ineffective.Hence, firstly, the word de novo hearing should be given a purposive interpretation and it should be understood as a fresh hearing of the matter on the basis of pleadings, evidence and documents on record. If the party wants to re-examine a witness or objects to the documents admitted, the Umpire is to hear the parties and decide the application in the interest ofHowever, having perused the records, it was found that the very first communication dated 24.05.1999, on which the appellant-Company has relied upon is a letter written to the Umpire with regard to the pending proceedings in the said matter before the High Court and the application that is filed before the High Court to which the appellant-Company was referring to in the said letter was an application filed under Section 5 of the Act for the dispute relating to quantum of fee of the Umpire. Though the appellant-Company in the said letter made a note with regard to the de novo hearing of the matter but the same seems to be an additional armory that the appellant is putting behind its back as it hasn?t demanded de novo trial of the said matter neither in the communication nor thereafter in the proceedings. The appellant-Company next referred to communication dated 12.01.2000 but the same is also with regard to the pending proceedings before the High Court. It is only on 29.01.2000 that the appellant-Company has filed an application for de novo hearing of the case i.e., at a stage where the final arguments on the side of the respondent-Company have been finished and the date was fixed for final argument from the side of appellant-Company. If the appellant-Company was serious in its endeavor that it should get an opportunity to get the evidence recorded afresh, an application could easily have been filed before starting the proceedings before the Umpire. It is only from oblique references that the appellant-Company seeks to derive such intent. This aspect is clearly an afterthought which arose during the culmination of the proceedings before the Umpire. Further, even the sum and substance of the highly belated application dated 29.01.2000 for commencement of proceedings de novo clearly shows that it was not asking for re-hearing/re-recording of the evidence but was actually requesting for review of the order of the two Arbitrators especially for re-examination of Shri K.L.is the case of the appellant-Company that the Arbitrators were wrong in permitting production of some other witness, by name, Shri Vijay Gupta instead of Shri K.L Jain. From the above, there is no doubt that the conduct of the appellant-Company amounts to waiver and the application filled on 29.01.2000 is nothing but trying a last armory to turn the case around. The Umpire was right in dismissing the saidFollowing the above judgments, we are of the opinion that the question of whether the claims were tenable or not are based on the contract and which of them had to be granted were within the exclusive domain of the Arbitrators. In this case, the Award considered the totality of circumstances, and weighed the relevant facts on balance while proceeding to award damages. The award does not disclose a manifestly erroneous approach; nor does it omit to consider and apply legal principles to the facts presented before the Arbitrators.In view of the above discussion, we do not find any infirmity or error in the approach and judgments passed by the courts below.