Manjan Devi Patni & Ors. vs Mohan Lal Agarwal & Ors.

This application under section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, as amended by Act 3 of 2016 (in short “the Act of 1996â€) has been

filed after making and publication of the award by the sole arbitrator.

Mr. Mitra appearing for the respondent no.1 raised strong objection with regard to the maintainability of this application. He urged that this Court lacks

inherent jurisdiction to entertain any application relating to or arising out of the arbitral proceedings between the parties. According to the respondent

no.1, one of the relief claimed by the present petitioners in their

statement of claim before the arbitrator was recovery of possession of an immovable property situate outside the jurisdiction of this Court and, as

such, this Court lacks jurisdiction to entertain this application.The respondent no.1 has also filed an application, GA No.1375 of 2018 for rejection of

this application by this Court on the ground of lack of jurisdiction.

It appears that an application filed by the present respondent no.1 under section 34 of the Act of 1996, for setting aside an award passed by the

learned sole arbitrator is pending before the learned District Judge at Alipore, 24 Parganas (South). The present petitioners, as the respondents has

filed an application raising objection to the jurisdiction of the learned District Judge at Alipore, South 24 Parganas to entertain the said application and

the same is pending disposal.

Considering the facts of the case, I am of the opinion that before entertaining the prayer of the present petitioner, the point of jurisdiction of this Court

to entertain the application as raised by the respondent no.1 should be decided first.

As prayed for, let the respondent no.1 file a supplementary affidavit to his application in GA No.1375 of 2018, within a week from date. The said

application, GA No.1375 of 2018, together with the supplementary affidavit shall be treated as the affidavit-inopposition on behalf of the respondent

no.1 against the petitioners’ present application, AP No.395 of 2018.

The petitioners may file their counter affidavit to the said application, GA No.1375 of 2018 and the supplementary affidavit to be filed by the petitioner

within two weeks from date. Let the application, GA No.1375 of 2018 as well as AP No.395 of 2018 appear under the heading “Adjourned

Motionâ€​, after three weeks.

Pendency of this application before this Court shall not stand in the way of the learned District Judge at Alipore, 24 Parganas (South) to decide the

maintainability of the application, under Section 34 of the Act of 1996, filed before him.