TMI Blog1966 (9) TMI 134X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e application of the law contained in the Limitation Act, whether the claim is barred. But s. 37(1) does not confer authority upon the Court to reject the application for filing of an arbitration agreement under s. 20 of the Arbitration Act because the claim is not made within three years form the date on which the right to apply arose. In dealing with an application for 'filing 'an arbitration agreement, the Court must satisfy itself about the existence of a written agreement which is valid and subsisting and which has been executed before the institution of any suit, and also that a dispute has arisen with regard to the subject matter of the agreement which is within the jurisdiction of the Court. But the Court is not concerned in dealing ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as the sole arbitrator. Triloknath Mahajan transferred all his rights, title and interest under the agreement to Wazirchand Mahajan-the first appellant-with the permission of the State of Himachal Pradesh. Disputes arose in October 1950 between the appellants and the State of Himachal Pradesh regarding the right to collect herbs from certain areas and the failure of the State authorities to prevent trespassers from removing herbs, the right to which was granted to the second appellant. The appellants addressed a letter on May 30, 1952 to the Chief Conservator of Forests, Himachal Pradesh, requiring that Officer to submit the matters in difference to the arbitration of the Deputy Commissioner, Mandi District. By his reply dated June 23, 1 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... udicial Commissioner, Himachal Pradesh, reversed the order of the Trial Court. In the view of the Judicial Commissioner an application for filing an arbitration agreement under s. 20 of the Arbitration Act is governed by Art. 181 of the Limitation Act, and since the period of three years prescribed thereby commences to run from the date on which the differences arose between the parties, i.e., about the month of September-October 1950, and in any case on September 1, 1951, the application for reference filed by the appellants was barred. The terms of Art. 181 are general, and are apparently not restricted to applications under the Code of Civil Procedure. But that Article is included in the group of articles which fall under the head Th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n Companies Act, 1913, to order a contributory in a winding-up to pay a debt; and Sha Mulchand's case([1953] S. C. R. 351.) related to an application under the Indian Companies Act, 1913, for rectification of the share-register and restoration of the name of a member whose shares were forfeited for non-payment of calls. In the Bombay Gas Company's case([1964] 3 S. C. R. 709) this Court was dealing with an application for enforcement of an order under s. 33C (2) of the Industrial Disputes Act 14 of 1947 for computation of benefit in terms. of money and for a direction to the employers to pay the same. But in each case the decision of the Court proceeded upon the general ground that Art. 181 of the Limitation Act, 1908, governed appli ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as now disappeared, but on that account the expression applications for which no period of limitation is provided elsewhere in this Schedule in Art. 181 cannot be given a connotation different from the one which prevailed for nearly 60 years before 1940. If Art. 181 of the Limitation Act only governs applications under the Code of Civil Procedure for which no period of limitation is provided under the Schedule, an application under the Arbitration Act, 1940 not being an application under the Code of Civil Procedure, unless there is some provision, which by express enactment or plain intendment to the contrary in the Arbitration Act, will not be governed by that Article. Counsel for the Union of India contended that s. 37(1) of the A ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... for the arbitrator's decision unless the parties have agreed to exclude that defence. Were it otherwise, a claim for breach of a contract containing a reference clause could be brought at any time, it might be twenty or thirty years after the cause of action had arisen although the Legislature had prescribed a limit of three years for the enforcement of such a claim in any application that might be made to the law courts. In enacting the Arbitration Act, 1940 the Legislature incorporated, with some modification, the rule which was regarded by the Judicial Committee as implicit in a commercial reference under an arbitration agreement. The Legislature provided that all the provisions of the Limitation Act, 1908, shall apply to arbitrati ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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