Arbitral Tribunal Not Barred Under Section 79 Of The RERA Act From Passing An Order Of Injunction
Case: Ashok Palav Coop. Housing Society Ltd. versus Pankaj Bhagubhai Desai & Anr.
Coram: Justice G.S. Kulkarni
Case No.: Commercial Arbitration Petition (L) No. 1206 Of 2019
Court Observation: “Adverting to the above position of law, it can be observed that although the arbitral tribunal has some trappings of the Court, the arbitral tribunal is not a Civil Court within the meaning and purview of the Code of Civil Procedure, so that the bar to arbitral proceedings can be read under Section 79 of the RERA.”
“The expression “any Court or other authority” as used in Section 79 would be required to be construed to mean that the word “authority” is a species of the word “Court”. This more particularly, as the word “Court” would be required to be read in conjunction with the word “authority” as it is well settled that when the words are separated by a conjunction “or”, the intention of the legislature is of joining the alternatives. Thus, the word “or” being a conjunction, it is being used for joining two alternatives namely the word “Court” and the word “authority”. Thus, the words “other authority” as used in the second part of Section 79 certainly derives its colour from the words in its company namely the “Court”.
“Adverting to the above principles of law, it needs to be stated that in the facts of the present case the parties elected to resolve their disputes through arbitration. Therefore, the parties clearly wished to bind themselves by the ACA. It cannot be logically conceived that the parties would seek a remedy which bars any interim or final adjudication if the case of the respondent is to be accepted. In such event, the recourse to arbitration would amount to an empty formality.”
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