Full Judgment Text
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PETITIONER:
THE PRINTERS (MYSORE) PRIVATE LTD.
Vs.
RESPONDENT:
POTHAN JOSEPH.
DATE OF JUDGMENT:
27/04/1960
BENCH:
GAJENDRAGADKAR, P.B.
BENCH:
GAJENDRAGADKAR, P.B.
WANCHOO, K.N.
GUPTA, K.C. DAS
CITATION:
1960 AIR 1156 1960 SCR (3) 713
CITATOR INFO :
R 1973 SC2071 (5)
R 1989 SC 839 (19)
ACT:
Arbitration Agreement-Power of court to stay legal
proceedings-Order by trial court refusing stay of
proceedings affirmed in appeal--supreme Court, if and when
can interfere with concurrent exercise of discretion by the
courts below-Arbitration Act, 1940 (x Of 1940), s. 34
Constitution of India, Art. 136.
HEADNOTE:
The respondent was the Editor of the Deccan Herald, owned
and published by the appellant, and the two contracts
executed by the parties contained an arbitration clause that
if in the interpretation or application of the contract any
difference arose between the parties the same shall be
referred to arbitration and the award shall be binding
between the parties and also provided for, apart from his
monthly salary, the payment of 10% of the profits to the
respondent. Upon the termination of his services by the
appellant, the respondent brought a suit for accounts and
payment of the profits found due to him. The appellant by
an
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application pleaded that the suit ought to be stayed under
S. 34 of the Arbitration Act, 1940, and the dispute referred
to arbitration in accordance with the agreement between the
parties. The trial judge refused to exercise his discretion
in favour of the appellant and refused to stay the suit. On
appeal the High Court confirmed the decision of the trial
court. The appellant came up to this Court by special leave
under Art. 136 of the Constitution:
Held, that the power conferred on the court by S. 34 Of the
Arbitration Act, 1940, is discretionary and even though the
conditions specified therein were fulfilled no party could
claim there under a stay of legal proceedings instituted in
a court as a matter of right. But the discretion vested in
the court is a judicial discretion and must be exercised as
such in the facts and circumstances of each case. No
inflexible rules can, therefore, be laid down f or its
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exercise and the court has to act according to common sense
and justice.
Gardner v. Jay, (1885) 29 Ch. D. 50, referred to
Where the discretion under the section has been properly and
judiciously exercised by the trial court the appellate court
would not be justified in interfering with such exercise of
discretion merely on the ground that it would have taken a
contrary decision if it had considered the matter at the
trial stage. But if it appears to the appellate court that
the trial court has exercised its discretion unreasonably or
capriciously or has ignored relevant facts or has approached
the matter unjudiciously, it would be its duty to interfere.
Charles Osenton & Co. v. jhanaton, (1942) A. C. 130,
referred to.
The words " interpretation and application of the contract
frequently used in arbitration clauses, as they have been in
the contracts in question, cover not only disputes relating
to the construction of the relevant terms of the contract
but also their effect, and unless the context compels a
contrary construction, a dispute relating to the working of
the contract falls within such a clause.
But the Supreme Court would not lightly interfere under Art.
136 of the Constitution with the concurrent exercise of dis-
cretion of the courts below under s. 34 Of the Act. Before
it can justly do so, the appellant must satisfy the Court,
on the relevant facts referred to by the courts below, that
they exercised their discretion in a manifestly unreasonable
or perverse way which was likely to defeat the ends of
justice.
JUDGMENT:
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 107 of 1960.
Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated
September 21, 1959, of the Mysore High Court, Bangalore, in
Misc. Appeal No. 68 of 1959.
Purshottam Prikamdas, S. N. Andley, J. B. DadaChanji,
Rameshwar Nath and P. L. Vohra, for the appellant.
715
K. R. Karanth and Naunit Lal, for the respondent.
1960. April 27. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
GAJENDRAGADKAR, J. The respondent, Pothan Joseph, who was
working as the Editor of the Deccan Herald owned and
published by the appellant, The’ Printers (Mysore) Private
Ltd., in Bangalore has filed a suit against the appellant on
two contracts executed between the parties on April 1, 1948,
and February 20, 1953, respectively, and has claimed
accounts of the working of the Deccan Herald newspaper from
April 1, 1948, to March 31, 1958, as well as payment of the
amount that may be found due to him from the appellant
tinder the provisions of cls. 2(d) and 1(d) of the said
contracts. The services of the respondent were terminated
by the appellant by its letter dated September 28, 1957, in
which the respondent was told that the termination would
take effect from March 31, 1958. However, by a subsequent
letter written by the appellant to the respondent on March
17, 1958, the respondent was told that his services had been
terminated with immediate effect and he was asked to hand
over charge to his successor, Mr. T. S. Ramachandra Rao.
Thereafter on July 14, 1958, the respondent, filed the
present suit against the appellant.
The appellant contended that the two contracts on which the
respondent’s claim was based were subject to an arbitration
agreement, and so it was not open to the respondent to file
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the present suit against the appellant. The appellant,
therefore, requested the Court under s. 34 of the Indian
Arbitration Act, 1940, (hereinafter called the Act), to stay
the proceedings initiated by the respondent and refer the
dispute to arbitration in accordance with the arbitration
agreement between the parties.
The learned trial judge who heard the appellant’s
application, however, exercised his discretion against it
and refused to stay the proceedings in the respondent’s
suit. Thereupon the appellant preferred an appeal in the
Mysore High Court but his appeal failed and the High Court
confirmed the order passed by the trial court though for
different reasons. The High
716
Court, however, thought that the learned trial judge, in
dealing with the appellant’s application " bad gone much
further than he should have done, and hence it was desirable
that the case should be tried by some other judge ". The
respondent did not object, and so the High Court directed
that the suit may be transferred to the file of the
Additional Civil Judge, Bangalore. The appellant then
applied to the High Court for a certificate. His
application was, however, rejected on the ground that the
decision under appeal could not be considered as a judgment,
decree or final order under Art. 133(1) of the Constitution
; on that view it was thought unnecessary to decide whether
on the merits the case was fit to be taken in appeal to this
Court. Then the appellant applied for and obtained special
leave from this Court. That is how this appeal has come
before us; and the substantial point which arises for our
decision is whether the courts below were in error in
refusing to stay the suit filed by the respondent against
the appellant in view of the arbitration agreement between
them.
Before we deal with the merits of the contentions raised by
the parties in this appeal it is necessary to set out
briefly the relevant facts leading to the present
litigation. The appellant is a printing company and it owns
and publishes the Deccan Herald in English and Prajavani in
Kannada at Bangalore. By a contract dated April 1, 1948,
the appellant engaged the respondent as Editor of the Deccan
Herald for a period of five years on terms and conditions
specified in the said contract. As provided by el. (5) of
the said contract the period of the respondent’s employment
was extended by another five years by a subsequent contract
entered into between the parties on February 20, 1953. As
we have already mentioned the services of the respondent
came to be terminated abruptly on March 17, 1958. It
appears that by his letter dated October 16, 1957, the
respondent made certain claims against the appellant under
the provisions of the Working Journalists Act. Besides, he
demanded 1/10th of the profits made by the Deccan Herald
from 1948 up to the date of the termination of his service
under the two respective contracts. This claim was
717
denied by the appellant. Correspondence then ensued between
the parties but since no common ground was discovered
between them the respondent filed the present suit. His
case is that the two contracts entitled him to claim 1/10th
of the profits made by the Deccan Herald during the period
of his employment,, and so he claims an account of the said
profits and his due share in them.
The learned trial judge found that the respective
contentions raised by the parties before him showed that
there was no dispute as such between them which could
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attract the arbitration agreement. He also held that an
attempt was made by the parties to settle their differences
amicably through the mediation of Mr. Behram Doctor but the
said attempt failed because the appellant was not serious
about it and was just trying " to protract, defeat and delay
the plaintiff ’s moves". According to the learned trial
judge a plea of limitation would fall to be considered in
the present suit and it was desirable that the said plea
should be tried by a competent court rather than by
arbitrators. He was, however, not impressed by the
respondent’s contention that his character had been
impeached by the appellant and so he should be allowed to
vindicate his character in a trial before a court rather
than before the arbitrators. In dismissing the appellant’s
claim for stay of the suit the learned judge observed that
if the accounts of the Deccan Herald had not been separately
maintained it would be competent for a qualified accountant
to allocate expenses and capital expenses among the
different activities of the appellant and then very little
would be left for arbitrators to decide. He had no doubt
that the contract by which the respondent was entitled to
claim 1/10th share in the profits of the Deccan Herald
necessarily postulated that the accounts of the Deccan
Herald would be separately maintained. On these
considerations the trial judge refused to stay the suit.
When the matter went in appeal the High Court held that the
dispute between the parties did not fall within the
arbitration agreement. The High Court also considered the
other points decided by the trial court; it held that Mr,
Behram Doctor had not been
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718
appointed as an arbitrator between the parties and that the
proceedings before him merely showed that the parties were
exploring the possibility of having an arbitration. It
observed that the appellant company was a big concern and
referred to the respondent’s apprehension that it was in a
position to dodge the respondent’s claim. However, the High
Court was not impressed by these apprehensions, and it was
not inclined to find fault with the conduct of the appellant
in the trial court. It was also not satisfied that the
question of limitation which would arise in the suit as well
as the question of interpreting the contracts could not be
properly tried by arbitration. It recognised that there had
been a complete change of front on the part of the appellant
in regard to the pleas raised by the appellant under the
arbitration agreement when the matter was discussed before
Mr. Behram Doctor, and when it reached the court in the form
of the present suit. The High Court then considered other
facts which it thought were relevant. It stated that there
was great deal of bad blood between the parties and there
was no meeting ground between them. The appellant’s plea
that recourse to arbitration may help an early disposal of
the dispute did not appeal to the High Court as sound, and
so, on the whole, the High Court thought that the order
passed by the trial court refusing to stay the proceedings
in suit should be confirmed. The appellant contends that
the reasons given by the High Court in refusing to stay the
suit are not convincing and that the discretion vesting in
the High Court in that behalf has not been properly or
judiciously exercised.
Section 34 of the Act confers power on the court to stay
legal proceedings where there is an arbitration agreement
subject to the conditions specified in the section. The
conditions thus specified are satisfied in the present case,
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but the section clearly contemplates that, even though there
is an arbitration agreement and the requisite conditions
specified by it are satisfied, the court may nevertheless
refuse to grant stay if it is satisfied that there are
sufficient reasons why the matter should not be referred in
accordance with the arbitration agreement. In other words,
the power to
719
stay legal proceedings is discretionary, and so a party to
an arbitration agreement against whom legal proceedings have
been commenced cannot by relying on the arbitration
agreement claim the stay of legal proceedings instituted in
a court as a matter of right. It is, however, clear that
the discretion vested in the court, must be properly and
judicially exercised. Ordinarily where a dispute between
the parties has by agreement between them to be referred to
the decision of a domestic tribunal the court would direct
the parties to go before the tribunal of their choice and
stay the legal proceedings instituted before it by one of
them. As in other matters of judicial discretion, so in the
case of the discretion conferred on the court by s. 34 it
would be difficult, and it is indeed inexpedient, to lay
down any inflexible rules which should govern the exercise
of the said discretion. No test can indeed be laid down the
automatic application of which will help the solution of the
problem of the exercise of judicial discretion. As was
observed by Bowen, L. J., in Gardner v. Jay (1) " that
discretion, like other judicial discretion, must be
exercised according to common sense and according to
justice. "
In exercising its discretion under s. 34 the court should
not refuse to stay the legal proceedings merely because one
of the parties to the arbitration agreement is unwilling to
go before an arbitrator and in effect wants to resile from
the said agreement, nor can stay be refused merely on the
ground that the relations between the parties to the dispute
have been embittered or that the proceedings before the
arbitrator may cause unnecessary delay as a result of the
said relations. It may not always be reasonable or proper
to refuse to stay legal proceedings merely because some
questions of law would arise in resolving the dispute
between the parties. On the other hand, if fraud or
dishonesty is alleged against a party it may be open to the
party whose character is impeached to claim that it should
be given an opportunity to vindicate its character in an
open trial before the court rather than. before the domestic
tribunal, and in a proper case the. court may consider that
fact as relevant for deciding
(1) (1885) 29 Ch. D 30 58,
720
whether stay should be granted or not. If there has been a
long delay in making an application for stay and the said
delay may reasonably be attributed to the fact that the
parties may have abandoned the arbitration agreement the
court may consider the delay as a relevant fact in deciding
whether stay should be granted or not. Similarly, if
complicated questions of law or constitutional issues arise
in the decision of the dispute and the court is satisfied
that it would be inexpedient to leave the decision of such
complex issues to the arbitrator, it may, in a proper case,
refuse to grant stay on that ground; indeed, in such cases
the arbitrator can and may state a special case for the
opinion of the court under s. 13(b) of the Act. Thus, the
question as to whether legal proceedings should be stayed
under s. 34 must always be decided by the court in a
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judicial manner having regard to the relevant facts and
circumstances of each case.
Where the discretion vested in the court under s. 34 has
been exercised by the trial court the appellate court should
be slow to interfere with the exercise of the said
discretion. In dealing with the matter raised before it at
the appellate stage the appellate court would normally not
be justified in interfering with the exercise of discretion
under appeal solely on the ground that if it had considered
the matter at the trial stage it would have come to a
contrary conclusion. If the discretion has been exercised
by the trial court reasonably and in a judicial manner the
fact that the appellate court would have taken a different
view may not justify interference with the trial court’s
exercise of discretion. As is often said, it is ordinarily
not open to the appellate court to substitute its own
exercise of discretion for that of the trial judge; but if
it appears to the appellate court that in exercising its
discretion the trial court has acted unreasonably or
capriciously or has ignored relevant facts and has adopted
an unjudicial approach then it would certainly be open to
the appellate court-and in many cases it may be its duty-to
interfere with the trial court’s exercise of discretion. In
cases falling under this class the exercise of discretion by
the trial
721
court is in law wrongful and improper and that would
certainly justify and call for interference from the
appellate court. These principles are well established;
but, as has been observed by Viscount Simon, L. C., in
Charles Osenton & Co. v. Johnston (1) " the law as to the
reversal by a court of appeal of an order made by a, judge
below in the exercise of his discretion is well established,
and any difficulty that arises is due only to the
application of well settled principles in an individual
case".
In the present case there is one more fact which has to be
borne in mind in dealing with the merits of the controversy
before us. The appellant has come to this Court by special
leave under Art. 136; in other words, the appellant is not
entitled to challenge the correctness of the decision of the
High Court as a matter of right. It is only in the
discretion of this Court that it can be permitted to dispute
the correctness or the propriety of the decision of the High
Court, and so in deciding whether or not this Court should
interfere with the order under appeal it would be relevant
for us to take into account the fact that the remedy sought
for by the appellant is by an appeal which is a
discretionary matter so far as this Court is concerned. It
is in the light of these principles that we must consider
whether or not the appellant’s complaint against the High
Court’s order can be upheld.
The first point which calls for a decision relates to the
construction of the contracts between the parties. As we
have already stated two contracts were executed between them
but their terms are substantially the same and so we may
deal with the subsequent contract which was executed on
February 20, 1953 (P. 2). Under this contract the respondent
was engaged as the Editor of the Deccan Herald and his
salary was fixed at Rs. 1,500 permensem under paragraph 1
(a). Paragraph 1(b) and (c) deal with the other amenities
to which the respondent was entitled. Clause (d) of
paragraph 1 provides that when the newspaper shows a profit
in the annual accounts the Editor shall be entitled to
1/10th share of it is on this clause that the respondent’s
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claim in the present proceedings is
(1) [1942] A.C 130, 138.
722
based. The terms on which the respondent had to remain in
the service of the appellant are specified in paragraph 2(a)
and (b). Paragraph 3 provides for the renewal of the
contract for a further period of five years if it is found
that such renewal is for the mutual advantage of the
parties. This paragraph also provides that during the
continuance of his employment the respondent shall not
directly or indirectly be interested in any other newspaper
business than that of the appellant or any other
journalistic activities in competition with that of the
appellant. It also stipulates that if the contract is
determined the respondent shall not for a period of three
years thereafter be directly or indirectly interested in any
newspaper business of the same kind as is carried on by the
appellant within the Mysore State. It would thus be seen
that this paragraph shows the liability imposed on the
respondent as a consideration for the benefit conferred on
him by paragraph 1 in general and cl. (d) of the said
paragraph in particular. Paragraph 4 contains an
arbitration agreement. It provides that if in the
interpretation or application of the contract any difference
of opinion arises between the parties the same shall be
referred to arbitration. The arbitrator can be named by
both the parties but if they failed to choose the same
person each side will choose an arbitrator and the two will
elect another person to complete the panel. Their award
shall be final and binding on both the parties.
The High Court has held that the present suit is outside the
arbitration agreement because neither party disputes the
applicability of the terms of the contract in the decision
of the dispute. The High Court thought that in the context
the words ’application of the contract’ meant a dispute as
to the applicability of the contract, and since the
applicability of the contract was not in question and no
dispute as to the interpretation of the contract arose, the
High Court held that paragraph 4 was inapplicable to the
present suit. Mr. Purshottam, for the appellant, con. tends
that the construction placed by the High Court on the word "
application " is erroneous. According to him, any
difference of opinion in regard to the application of the
contract must in the context mean
723
the, working out of the contract or giving effect to its
terms. In our opinion, this contention is well founded.
The words ’interpretation or application of the contract’
are frequently used in arbitration agreements and they
generally cover disputes between the parties in regard to
the construction of the relevant terms of the contract as
well as their effect, and unless the con-’ text compels a
contrary construction, a dispute in regard to the working of
the contract would generally fall within the clause in
question. It is not easy to appreciate what kind of dispute
according to the High Court would have attracted paragraph 4
when it refers to a difference of opinion in the application
of the contract. Since both the parties have signed the
contract the question about its applicability in that form
can hardly arise. Differences may, however, arise and in
fact have arisen as to the manner in which the contract has
to be worked out and given effect to, and it is precisely
such differences that are covered by the arbitration
agreement. We would accordingly hold that the High Court
was in error in coming to the conclusion that the present
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dispute between the parties was outside the scope of
paragraph 4 of the contract.
If the High Court had refused to stay the present
proceedings only on this ground the appellant would no doubt
have succeeded; but the High Court has based its decision
not only, nor even mainly, on the construction of the
contract. The tenor of the judgment suggests that the High
Court considered the other relevant facts to which its
attention was invited and the material findings recorded by
the trial judge, and though it differed from some of the
findings of the trial judge, on the whole it felt no
difficulty in coming to the conclusion that there was no
reason to interfere with the trial court’s exercise of
discretion under s. 34. That is why, even though the
appellant has succeeded before us on the question of the
construction of the arbitration agreement, having regard to
the limits which we generally impose on the exercise of the
jurisdiction under Art. 136, he must still satisfy us that
we would be justified in interfering with the concurrent
exercise of discretion by the two courts below, and that
would inevitably depend upon the other
724
relevant facts to which both the courts have referred, and
on which both of them have relied though in different ways.
What then are the broad features of the case on which the
trial judge and the High Court have respectively relied ? It
is clear that the present dispute is not the result of an
ordinary commercial transaction containing an arbitration
clause. The contract in question is between a journalist
and his employer by which the remuneration of the journalist
has been fixed in a somewhat unusual manner by giving him a
specified percentage in the profit which the Deccan Herald
would make from year to year. According to the respondent
he was surprised when the General Manager of the paper
informed him that 75% of the overall expenditure incurred in
the several activities of the appellant was being charged to
the Deccan Herald, and that the capital liabilities were
charged in the same proportion; he thought that this system
of accounting adopted by the appellant was repugnant to the
material provisions in his contract. Indeed his case is
that after he came to know about this system he protested to
the Director, Mr. Venkataswamy, who has been taking active
part in the affairs of the appellant, and Mr. Venkataswamy
assured him that as from the beginning of 1955 the accounts
were being separately maintained. It would appear that the
information received by the respondent from the General
Manager disillusioned him and that appears to be the
beginning of the present dispute, according to the
respondent’s letter of May 24, 1955, (D. 1). On February
18, 1956, the respondent invoked the arbitration agreement
and told Mr. Venkataswamy that Mr. Behram Doctor had agreed
to work as arbitrator and give his award (D. 2). Mr.
Venkataswamy who was addressed by the respondent as the
Managing Director told him by his reply of March 5, 1956,
that he was not the Managing Director and added that in his’
view it was not open to the respondent to invoke cl. 4 of
the contract because he was aware that no monies were
payable to the respondent under el. 1(d). It would thus be
seen that Mr. Venkataswamy’s immediate response to the res-
pondent’s request for arbitration was that the respon-
725
dent could not invoke the arbitration clause (D. 3). It is
true that on April 23, 1956, Mr. Venkataswamy attempted to
explain this statement by saying that all that he intended
to suggest was that no occasion for invoking the arbitration
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agreement had arisen. That, however, appears to be an
unsatisfactory explanation (D. 10). Even so, Mr.
Venkataswamy agreed to meet Mr. Behram Doctor and so on
March 9, 1956, the respondent gave to Mr. Venkataswamy the
address of Mr. Behram Doctor and asked him to see him (D.
5). He informed Mr. Behram Doctor accordingly (D. 6). It
appears that subsequently Mr. Behrain Doctor met both the
respondent and Mr. Venkataswamy on May 9, 1956. The
proceedings of this meeting which have been kept by Mr.
Behram Doctor and copies of which have been supplied by him
to both the parties indicate that Mr. Behram Doctor
attempted to mediate between the parties and presumably the
parties were agreeable to secure the mediation of Mr. Behram
Doctor to resolve the dispute. We ought to add that the
copy of the said proceedings produced by the appellant
contains a statement that Mr. Venkataswamy at the outset
told Mr. Behram Doctor that he had; come on an unofficial
visit and was speaking without the consent of the other
directors. This statement is, however, not to be found in
the copy supplied by Mr. Behram Doctor to the respondent.
Prima facie it is not easy to understand why Mr. Behram
Doctor should have omitted this material statement in the
copy supplied by him to the respondent. That, however, is a
matter which we do not propose to pursue in the present
appeal. It is thus clear that though Mr. Behram Doctor was
not appointed an arbitrator and no reference in writing was
made to him an attempt was made by the parties to settle the
dispute with the assistance of Mr. Behram Doctor, and that
attempt failed. Having regard to the facts which have come
on the record it may not be unreasonable to infer that the
appellant was not too keen to pursue the matter on the lines
originally adopted by both the parties before Mr. Behram
Doctor.
It also appears that for some years the, accounts of the
Deccan Herald had not been separately kept as
94
726
they should have been according to the respondent’s case.
The respondent alleges that they have not been kept
separately throughout the ten years ; but that is a matter
which is yet to be investigated. If the accounts are not
separately kept the question of allocating expenditure would
inevitably arise and that can be decided after adopting some
ad hoc principle in that behalf. A plea of limitation has
also been indicated by the appellant and it has been
suggested that the first contract having merged in the
second it is only under the latter contract that the
respondent may have a cause of action. "Thus the effect of
the two contracts considered together may have to be
adjudged in dealing with the question of limitation. It has
also been suggested that the respondent knew how the
accounts were kept from year to year and in substance he may
be deemed to have agreed with the method adopted in keeping
the accounts. If this point is raised by the appellant it
may involve the decision of the question about the effect of
the respondent’s conduct on his present claim. The appel-
lant has also suggested that the respondent has adopted an
attitude of blackmailing the appellant and the respondent
treats that as an aspersion on his character. The relations
between the parties have been very much embittered and the
respondent apprehends that the appellant, being a powerful
company, may delay and seek to defeat the respondent’s claim
by protracting the proceedings before the arbitrators. It
now looks impossible that the parties would agree to appoint
one arbitrator, and so if the matter goes before the
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domestic tribunal the two arbitrators appointed by the two
parties respectively may have to nominate a third one to
complete the constitution of the domestic tribunal, and that
it is said may easily lead to a deadlock. In the trial
court attempts were made to settle this unfortunate dispute
but they failed and the respondent’s grievance is that the
appellant adopted an unhelpful and noncooperative attitude.
It appears fairly clear that when the parties entered into
the present contract and agreed that differences between
them in regard to the interpretation and application of the
contract should be referred to
727
arbitration they did not anticipate the complications which
have subsequently arisen. That is why an arbitration
agreement may have been introduced in the contract in
question. All these facts have been considered by both the
courts, and though it is true that in their approach and
final decisions in respect of these facts the two courts
have differed in material particulars, they have in the
result agreed with the conclusion that the discretion vested
in them should be exercised in not granting stay as claimed
by the appellant. Under these circumstances we do not think
we would be justified in substituting our discretion for
that of the courts below. It may be that if we were trying
the appellant’s application under s. 34 we might have come
to a different conclusion; and also that we may have
hesitated to confirm the order of the trial court if we had
been dealing with the matter as a court of first appeal; but
the matter has now come to us under Art. 136, and so we can
justly interfere with the concurrent exercise of the
discretion by the courts below only if we feel that the said
exercise of discretion is patently and manifestly
unreasonable, capricious or perverse and that it may defeat
the ends of justice. Having regard to all the circumstances
and facts of this case we are not disposed to hold that a
case for our interference has been made out by the
appellant. That is why we dismiss this appeal but make no
order as to costs throughout.
Appeal dismissed.