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In the matter between Punjab State Power Corporation Limited and Emta Coal Limited and Anr. The Supreme Court held that, “a foray to the writ Court from a section 16 application being dismissed by the can only be if the order passed is so perverse that the only possible conclusion is that there is a patent lack in inherent jurisdiction.”
The appeal is the result of the impugned judgement of 10.12.2019 passed on the fact that the order passed by the Arbitral Tribunal was challenged only 2½ years late and the petitioner filed the writ petition at the last minute after the arguments had concluded before the Arbitral Tribunal, and did not follow the drill of section 16 of the Arbitration Act.
The learned senior counsel appearing for petitioner Shri K.V. Vishwananthan based their submissions on paragraph 16 of the Supreme Court’s judgement in Deep Industries Ltd. v. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. & Anr., wherein the Joint Venture Agreement and the arbitration clause therein would make it clear that the third party, in this case, had not been referred to at all, as a result of which there is a patent lack of inherent jurisdiction.
However, the court was of the view that, "a foray to the writ Court from a section 16 application being dismissed by the Arbitrator can only be if the order passed is so perverse that the only possible conclusion is that there is a patent lack in inherent jurisdiction. A patent lack of inherent jurisdiction requires no argument whatsoever – it must be the perversity of the order that must stare one in the face."
In the present case, no such patent lack of inherent jurisdiction is seen. The Supreme Court also noticed that the High Court ought to have discouraged similar litigation by imposing heavy costs and should have referred to the judgment in Deep Industries Ltd. and dismissed the 227 writ petition on the ground that there is no such perversity in the order which leads to a patent lack of inherent jurisdiction.
The bench of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Indira Banerjee, while dismissing the special leave petition as it does not fall under the extremely exceptional category, ordered costs of Rs. 50,000/- to be paid to the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee within two weeks.
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