Arbitration
Loan Agreement—Question as to whether the Calcutta High Court is the proper court in terms of arbitration clause in the loan agreement—Clause 29 and 30 read together would inevitably point to Chennai being the chosen venue of arbitration although the arbitration clause gives an option to the petitioner to unilaterally decide the venue of arbitration—Clause is arbitrary on the very face of it—Petitioner has been given the sole discretion to decide on shifting of the venue to any other place—Any change of venue must be chosen by both the parties in sync with free choice in such matters—Admitted facts that the agreement was entered into at Chennai, the agreement was terminated from Chennai and the registered office of the petitioner is at Chennai—Petitioner has not been able to establish any facts which would attract the jurisdiction of the Calcutta High Court.
[Paras 26 to 31]
Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996
Section 9—Appointment of a receiver of the asset which was financed by way of a loan given by the petitioner to the respondents—Maintainability of application challenged on ground that application is barred under Section 42 of the Act and Order 23 Rule 1 of the CPC—Salient object of Order 23 of the CPC, which is obtaining permission from the Court to withdraw a proceeding with liberty to institute a fresh proceeding on the same subject matter, should be preserved.
[Para 25]
Section 9—Appointment of a receiver of the asset which was financed by way of a loan given by the petitioner to the respondents—Maintainability of application challenged on the ground that the application has not been filed before jurisdictional court in terms of the arbitration agreement between the parties—Pecuniary jurisdiction of the City Civil Court and the Calcutta High Court was notified—Commercial disputes between rupees ten lakhs to rupees one crore in respect of which City Civil Court at Calcutta and the Commercial Division of the High Court have been given concurrent jurisdiction—Choice of petitioner cannot be restricted to the Calcutta High Court as the only principal Civil Court of Original Jurisdiction in the District of Calcutta—Petitioner cannot categorise the City Civil Court as lacking in jurisdiction to receive or try the first application which was filed before it.
[Paras 8 to 21]