POWERTECH WORLD WIDE LIMITED versus DELVIN INTERNATIONAL GENERAL TRADING LLC

Citation: [2011] 13 S.C.R. 122 · Decided: 14-11-2011 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: SWATANTER KUMAR · Disposal: Case Allowed

Cited by 2 judgment(s) · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

A 
B 
[2011] 13 (ADDL.) S.C.R. 122 
POWERTECH WORLD WIDE LIMITED 
v 
DELVIN INTERNATIONAL GENERAL TRADING LLC 
(Arbitration Petition (Civil) No. 5 of 2010) 
NOVEMBER 14, 2011 
[SWATANTER KUMAR, J.] 
Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 - s. 11 (6) -
Appointment of an arbitrator - Petition u/s. 11 (6) - Indian 
C Company (petitioner) entered into a purchase contract with a 
foreign Company (respondent) - Contract contained an 
arbitration clause - Supply of goods by the petitioner -
Repeated request by the petitioner for payment of outstanding 
dues not acceded to by the respondent - Notice by the 
D petitioner to the respondent invoking arbitration proceedings 
to adjudicate the said dispute and nomination of an arbitrator 
- No response from respondent - Petition u/s. 11(6) by the 
petitioner before the Supreme Court - Arbitration agreement 
as contained in the Purchase Contract that 'any disputes 
E arising out of the Purchase Contract shall be settled amicably 
between both the parties or through an arbitrator in India/ 
abroad - Enforceability of, in terms of s. 11 (6) - Held: It is clear 
from a reading of the arbitration clause that the parties were 
ad idem to amicably settle their disputes or settle the disputes 
F through an arbitrator in India/abroad - There was apparently 
some ambiguity caused by the language of the arbitration 
clause - However, once the correspondence between the 
parties and attendant circumstances are read conjointly with 
the petition of the petitioner and with particular reference to 
G the purchase contract, it becomes evident that the parties had 
an agreement in writing and were ad idem in their intention 
to refer these matters to an arbitrator in accordance with the 
provisions of the Act - Respondent had admitted the 
existence of an arbitration agreement between the parties and 
H 
122 
POWERTECH WORLD WIDE LTD. v. DELVIN INTERNATIONAL 123 
GEN, TRADING LLC 
consented to the idea of appointing a common/sole arbitrator A 
- to determine the disputes between the parties - Thus, any 
ambiguity in the arbitration clause contained in the purchase 
contract stood extinct by the correspondence between the 
parties and the consensus ad idem in relation to the existence 
of an arbitration agreement and settlement of disputes 
B 
through arbitration became crystal clear -
Thus, the 
arbitration petition is allowed and the arbitrator nominated by 
the petitioner is appointed as Sole Arbitrator to adjudicate 
upon the disputes. 
c 
Arbitration -
Binding arbitration agreement -
Pre-
requisites of - Explained. 
Jagdish Chander v. Ramesh Chander & Ors. (2007) 5 
SCC 719; Wellington Associates Ltd. v. Kirit Mehta AIR 2000 
SC 1379; K.K. Modi v. K.N. Modi & Ors. (1998) 3 SCC 573; 
D 
Smita Conductors Ltd. v. Euro Alloys Ltd. (2001) 7 SCC 728; 
Bihar State Mineral Development Corporation v. Encon 
Builders (2003) 7 SCC 418; Rickmers Verwaltung GMBH v. 
Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (1999) 1 SCC 1; Unissi (India) Pvt. Ltd. 
v. Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and E 
Research (2009) 1 SCC 107; Shakti Bhog Foods Ltd. v. Kola 
Shipping Ltd. (2009) 2 SCC 134; VISA International Ltd. v. 
Continental Resources (USA) Ltd. (2009) 2 SCC 55 -
referred to. 
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Arbitration Petition 
F 
(Civil) NO. 5 of 2010. 
Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1966. 
C.N. 
Sreeku"mar, 
T.G. 
Narayanan 
Nair, 
K.N. 
G 
Madhusoodhanan, Resmitha R. Chandran for the Petitioner. 
The Order of the Court was delivered by 
SWATANTER KUMAR, J. 1. Mis. Powertech World Wide 
Limited, the petitioner, is a limited company registered under 
H 
124 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2011] 13 (ADDL.} S.C.R. 
A the Companies Act, 1956, having its registered office at 202, 
Krishna Chambers, 59, New Marine Lines, Churchgate, 
Mumbai and has filed the present petition through its al!thorized 
representative under Section 11 (6) of the Arbitration and 
Conciliation Act, 1996 (for short 'the Act') praying for 
B appointment of an Arbitrator. M/s. Delvin International General 
Trading LLC, the respondent, is also a company, which has 
been incorporated under the laws of Dubai (UAE) having its 
registered office in Dubai and is stated to be engaged in the 
business of importing and selling of various commodities. The 
c responderit was desirous of purchasing and the petitioner was 
willing to sell various articles in the course of their international 
trade, for which their negotiations in November 2006 finally 
resulted in 

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