Gujarat State Construction Corporation Vs. Ghanshyambhai and Bros. - Court Judgment

Excerpt:
- j.n. bhatt, j.1. rule service of rule is waived by mr. s.b. vakil on behalf of the respondent.this is an application for review of the judgment and order recorded by this court in civil revision application no. 263 of 1989 on april 10, 1995, whereby, time for arbitration proceedings came to be enlarged exercising powers under section 28 of the arbitration act.2. this court after enlarging time under section 28 directed the arbitrator to dispose of the disputes under reference as expeditiously as possible but not later than four months from the date of receipt of service of notice to both the parties after receiving writ of this court. when the said revision was heard, the attention of this court was not drawn to the provisions of the gujarat public works contracts disputes arbitration tribunal act, 1992 section 3 came into force on 5th december, 1991 and the remaining provisions of the act came into force on 1st january, 1994 as per the notification published in the official gazette. the judgment and order in the aforesaid civil revision application was passed on april 10, 1995. therefore, the provisions of the gujarat public works contracts disputes arbitration tribunal act, 1992 were in force.3. it is in this context, the applicant gujarat state construction corporation, original opponent, has filed this revision application. it is contended on behalf of the applicant that instead of sending the matter to the arbitrator, the matter may be sent to the tribunal. the contention of the learned advocate for the opponent in this review application is that let the matter be remitted to the arbitrator and the applicant herein could move the arbitrator to pass appropriate order.section 21 of the gujarat public works contracts disputes arbitration tribunal act, 1992 reads as under:21. the provisions of the arbitration act, shall in so far as they are inconsistent with the provisions of this act, cease to apply to any dispute arising from a works contract and all arbitration proceedings in relation to such dispute before an arbitrator, umpire, court or authority shall stand transferred to the tribunal.it can be seen from the aforesaid provisions that the matter is required to be sent to the tribunal and not to the arbitrator. all arbitration proceedings in relation to such disputes before an arbitrator, umpire, court or authority shall stand transferred to the tribunal in view of the provisions of section 21. therefore, there is a fit case for review and the direction of remitting the matter to the arbitrator for disposal of disputes under reference needs to be modified and the matter should be sent to the tribunal for disposal in accordance with law.4. in the result, in partial modification of the last paragraph of the judgment in civil revision application no. 263 of 1989, instead of direction to send the matter to the arbitrator, the matter shall be remitted to the tribunal. it is, therefore, modified and directed that the matter shall now go to the tribunal for disposal in accordance with law and the tribunal will dispose of the same as early as possible and preferably within four months after the receipt of file from the court.accordingly, this review application is allowed. rule is made absolute to the aforesaid extent with no order as to costs.