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TMI Blog1959 (8) TMI 50X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e of a Bought note and a Sold note both dated 12-3-1951 the petitioner agreed to sell to the respondent and !he respondent agreed to buy from the petitioner 20000 pieces of D. W. Flour bags of certain specifications contained in the said Notes at ₹ 237/- per 100 bags F. O. R. Katihar -- delivery R/R 15-4-1951. 4. The contract contains an arbitration clause which may be set out hereunder: "All matters, questions, disputes, differences and/or claims arising out of and/or concerning and/ or in connection with and/or in consequence of or relating to this contract whether or not the obligations of either or both parties under this Contract be subsisting at the time of such dispute and whether or not this contract has been terminated ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ngal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. On 29-4-1934 the Registrar constituted a court for adjudication of the disputes, in accordance with Sub-rule (2) of Rule V, and on 5-5-1954 the Registrar sent to the petitioner a copy of the Statement of the respondent, and called upon the petitioner to submit his statement. On 7-6-1954 the petitioner submitted his statement. In this statement the petitioner inter alia raised the contention that the alleged claim of the respondent was barred by limitation and the Arbitrators had no jurisdiction to entertain the claim or the reference or to make any award. 7. Section 37 of the Arbitration Act contains provisions with regard to limitation and the correctness or otherwise of the respective contentions ra ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... less one or other of the two specified conditions are complied with, within the period of limitation prescribed for a particular claim, such a claim becomes barred and the Arbitrator has no jurisdiction to entertain any such barred claim or to give any relief in respect thereof. I do not think that this contention of Mr. Tibrewalla is sound. 10. Section 37(1) clearly provides that all the provisions of the Indian Limitation Act 1908 will apply to arbitrations, as they apply to proceedings in Court. 11. So the arbitration proceedings are placed on the same footing as proceedings in Court, and all the provisions including S, 3 of the Limitation Act are attracted to arbitration proceedings. In other words the Legislature has regarded, for th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l. 12. Sub-section (3) of Section 37 cannot be construed as exhaustive of the circumstances under which an arbitration commences. The expression "shall be deemed to be commenced" indicates that the Sub-section deals with two modes of notional or fictional commencement as distinguished from factual commencement. It is possible to conceive of cases where an arbitration can be said to have commenced under circumstances not contemplated by Sub-section (3) of Section 37 as, for example, when parties by an agreement in writing actually submit existing disputes to a particular arbitrator of their choice. In such a case no notice to appoint an arbitrator is necessary nor is, any notice requiring that the difference be submitted to a name ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... notice on the arbitrator calling upon him to act, as the starting or commencement of the arbitration, this mode of commencement would also have been expressly mentioned in Sub-section (3) of Section 37; and the fact that it does not find place in that subsection shows that the giving of such notice was not intended to amount to commencement of the arbitration. In my view too much stress cannot be laid on this Clause (3) of the First Schedule in interpreting Sub-section (3) of Section 37 of the Act. 15. Mr. Tibrewalla has placed reliance on a decision of the Bombay High Court . Purshottamdas v. Impex (India) Ltd. where Sub-section (5) of Section 37 has been construed by Chagla C. J. and Dixit J. and it has been held that the very fact that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... such orders are not normally made in the case of ordinary suits or ordinary legal proceedings contemplated in Section 14 of the Limitation Act. So to provide for these special cases and to place such matters beyond all disputes the special provision as embodied in Sub-section (5) of Section 37 was inserted in the Statute as supplemental to Section 14 of the Limitation Act. I am therefore unable to accept the contention of Mr. Tibrewalla that Sub-section (3) of Section 37 of the Act overrides the general provisions of the Indian Limitation Act. In my view the learned judges of the Madras High Court have taken the correct view as to the interpretation to be put on Sub-section (3) of Section 37 of the Act in the case of Ratha Krishnamurtly v. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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