Jammu & Kashmir High Court Srinagar Bench Union Territory Of J&K And Anr vs Northern Steel Industries on 14 December, 2023 h475 HIGH COURT OF JAMMU & KASHMIR AND LADAKH AT SRINAGAR CM (M) No. 290/2023 Reserved on 02.12.2023 Pronounced on 14.12.2023 Union Territory of J&K And anr. ...Petitioner(s) Through: Mr. Faheem Nisar Shah, GA. Mr. Ilyas Nazir Laway, GA. V/s Northern Steel Industries ...Respondent(s) Through: Mr. AzharulAmin, Advocate with Mr. Mubashir Masood, Advocate and Mr. Bilal Ahmad Bhat, Advocate. JUDGMENT 1. Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir through Chief Engineer, M&RE Wing, Srinagar, alongwith Executive Engineer, Electric Division Shopian, have filed this petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India for seeking quashment of an award dated 20042021 passed by the Secretary, Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council, Kashmir Division, Srinagar, in case titled Northern Transformers v. Chief Engineer, M&RE Wing, Srinagar, as also an order dated 13062023 passed by the 2 CM(M) No. 290/2023 court of learned Additional District Judge (Bank Cases) Srinagar [„the executing Court‟]. 2. Briefly stated the facts projected by the petitioners in this petition are that on 08062020 the respondent filed an application under the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 [„MSMED Act, 2006‟] regarding delayed payments before the Secretary, Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council, Kashmir Division, Srinagar [„the Council‟]. On receipt of reference the Secretary of the Council vide its communication dated 14072020 called upon the petitioner No.2 to furnish the details in respect of the reference received, within a period of seven days with regard to; (i) date of completion of supply order; (ii) payment made, if any; and (iii) pending payments as on date. This was followed by another communication of the Secretary of the Council dated 17082020 calling upon the petitioner No.2 to pay an amount of Rs. 1,39,20,890/ to the respondent within 15 days from receipt of notice, intimating further to the petitioner No.2 that, in case of failure, the case shall be registered by the Council. It seems that the aforesaid notices issued by the Secretary to the Council were not responded to by the petitioners and the requisite payment demanded by the respondent was not released. The Secretary of the Council invoked the provisions of Section 18(2) of the MSMED Act, 2006 and called upon both the parties to appear before it for mutual settlement. It is, however, not clear from the pleadings as to whether the parties attended the settlement meeting fixed by the Council. It is, however, the grievance of the petitioners that they suddenly received an award dated 20042021 passed by the Secretary of the 3 CM(M) No. 290/2023 Council, holding the respondent entitled to a payment of Rs, 1,39,20,890/ alongwith compound interest at the rate of 12.75 % Per annum with effect from 25012019 till the payment was made to the respondent through J&K SICOP. 3. When the award dated 20042021 was not complied with by the petitioners, the respondent filed an execution petition before the executing Court in which the executing Court, vide order impugned dated 13062023, attached all accounts operated by the petitioner No.2, excluding the salary account, as also all the official vehicles belonging to the petitioner department. The award, as well as the order passed by the executing Court referred to above, are subject matter of challenge in this petition. 4. The award has been challenged by the petitioners inter alia on the ground that the Council has not followed the mandate of Section 18 of the Act of 2006 in its right perspective. It is submitted that no conciliation proceedings in terms of subSection 2 of Section 18 were ever conducted nor was the dispute between the parties amicably settled in such proceedings. It is thus argued that in the absence of failure of conciliation proceedings, it was not available to the Council to initiate the arbitral proceedings. To put it more clearly, the learned counsel for the petitioners argued that the award, which has