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TMI Blog2016 (1) TMI 1042X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... between the appellant and the respondent. - Decided against the appellant. - Civil Appeal No. 7019 of 2005, Civil Appeal No. 3678 of 2007 - - - Dated:- 28-1-2016 - Anil R. Dave, Kurian Joseph And Amitava Roy, J. JUDGMENT Kurian, J. 1. The residue of the Constitution Bench Judgment in Bharat Aluminium Company v. Kaiser Aluminium Technical Services Inc. (2012) 9 SCC 552 is the subject matter of the present appeal. At the instance of the appellant, the Bench resolved the conflicting, if not, confusing views on the applicability of Part I of Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereinafter referred to as Arbitration Act ) and held that Part I of the Arbitration Act is applicable only to all the arbitrations which take pl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... reement, express or implied, have excluded wholly or partly, Part I of the Arbitration Act. 4. The bare necessary facts of the case are that an agreement dated 22.04.1993 was executed between the appellant and the respondent with relation to supply of equipment, and modernization and up-gradation of the production facilities of the appellant at Korba in the state of Chhattisgarh. Certain disputes arose between the parties and the same were referred to arbitration. The arbitration proceedings were held in England and the arbitral tribunal made two awards in favour of the respondent dated 10.11.2002 and 12.11.2002. The appellant filed applications, under Section 34 of the Arbitration Act before the District Judge, Bilaspur, which were dism ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d by two arbitrators, one appointed by the Petitioner and one by Respondent chosen freely and without any bias. The Court of arbitration shall be wholly in London, England and shall use the English language in the proceedings. The finding and award of the Court of Arbitration shall be final and binding. Article 17.3: Before entering upon the arbitration, the two Arbitrators shall appoint an Umpire. If the two arbitrators are not able to reach an agreement on the selection of an Umpire, the Umpire shall be nominated by the International Chamber of Paris. Article 22: GOVERNING LAW This agreement will be governed by the prevailing law of India and in case of Arbitration, the English Law shall apply. 7. In order to cohere ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... (1996) 11 SCC 475, though in the context of the pre-amended Land Acquisition Act, this court has dealt with the meaning of the expression in pursuance of . It has been held 4 .. In pursuance of would mean under the authority of or by virtue of or in the course of carrying out in accordance with the scheme or plan or direction or order or anything in consequence or conformable to or according to; act of pursuing, carrying out and performance, prosecution. Therefore, it is clear that the parties have agreed in expressed terms that the law of arbitration would be English Arbitration Law. 9. Article 22 has in fact two parts. In the first part of that Article, it is agreed between the parties that the proper law of the contrac ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s like wills, it is simply intention alone of the executor that is relevant. In the case before us, being a contract executed between the two parties, the court cannot adopt an approach for interpreting a statute. The terms of the contract will have to be understood in the way the parties wanted and intended them to be. In that context, particularly in agreements of arbitration, where party autonomy is the grundnorm, how the parties worked out the agreement, is one of the indicators to decipher the intention, apart from the plain or grammatical meaning of the expressions and the use of the expressions at the proper places in the agreement. Contextually, it may be noted that in the present case, the respondent had invoked the provisions of E ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rbitration in Article 17.1, the parties intended to state the same again in a separate clause within the same contract in Article 22. Therefore, the intention of the parties to apply English Law to the arbitration agreement also and not limit it to the conduct of the arbitration is fairly clear from Article 22. 12. Sumitomo (supra) is of no avail to the appellant. In Sumitomo (supra), there was no specific choice on the law of arbitration agreement and this court held that in absence of such choice, the law of arbitration agreement would be determined by the substantive law of the contract. That is not the case in this agreement. 13. It is clear that the law applicable to arbitration agreement in the present case is English Law. Once ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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