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TMI Blog1988 (8) TMI 380X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ity Civil Court, and the decision of the High Court cannot be sustained and they are set aside - remand the case back to the learned Judge, City Civil Court, to ask the Government to appoint the Superintending Engineer. Trichy, to be an arbitrator in accordance with the arbitration agreerment. - Civil Appeal No. 3251 of 1988 - - - Dated:- 29-8-1988 - SABYASACHI MUKHARJI, and S. RANGNATHAN, J JUDGMENT From the Judgment" and Order dated 21.9.l984 of the Madras High Court in C.R.P. No.3482 of 1984. A.V.Rangam for the Appellant P. Krishna Rao and K.R.Nagaraja for the Respondents. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by SABYASACHI MUKHARJI,J.Leave granted and the appeal is disposed of by the following judgment. This appeal ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... erring the dispute to the arbitrator for further proceedings and the City Civil Court? Madras, accepting the appellant's prayer, passed orders directing both the parties to refer the disputes to the arbitrator, and stayed the suit. As per the order of the City Civil Court, Madras, the respondent filed claim petition before the arbitrator, namely, Superintending Engineer (Highways Rural Works) Rural Roads Circle, Tiruchirapalli, being the second respondent herein. During the pendency of the claim before the said arbitrator, the respondent filed another application seeking to change the arbitrator on the ground that the arbitrator being an employee of the State Government, an Engineer from any sector other than the sector of Tamil Nadu or ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he cancel-lation of the contract in question and the contract entrusted to the petitioner came to be terminated and the construction was sought to be entrusted at the risk and cost of the petitioner on the advice or the proposal of the Chief Engineer. The Superintending Engineer is sub-ordinate to the Chief Engineer, therefore, the learned Judge, City Civil Court was of the view, as he says in the judgment, "It is not unreasonable to say that the successive Superintending Engineer of this particular department who will be subordinate to the Chief Engineer will necessarily have a leaning to accept the attitude expressed by the Chief Engineer." The learned Judge came to the conclusion that there could legitimately be a bias in the mind of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... arbitration and indeed submitted to the jurisdiction of the Superintending Engineer at that time to begin with, who, however, could not complete the arbitration because he was transferred and succeeded by a successor. In those circumstances on the facts stated no bias can reasonably be apprehended and made a ground for removal of a named arbitrator. ln our opinion this cannot be, at all, a good or valid legal ground. Unless there IS allegation against the named arbitrator either against his honesty or capacity or mala fide or interest in the subject matter or reasonable apprehension of the bias, a name and agreed arbitrator cannot and should not be removed in exercise of a discretion vested in the Court under section 5 of the Act. Reasona ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r the decision of the learned Judge. There was, in our opinion, no ground for removal of the arbitrator. Mere imagination of a ground cannot be an excuse for apprehending bias in the mind of the chosen arbitrator. In that view of the matter, the order made by the learned Judge. City Civil Court, and the decision of the High Court cannot be sustained and they are set aside. The appeal is allowed. We remand the case back to the learned Judge, City Civil Court, to ask the Government to appoint the Superintending Engineer. Trichy, to be an arbitrator in accordance with the arbitration agreerment. The arbitrator will proceed according to the evidence of the parties and after considering all the relevant facts according to the agreement and mak ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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