Case Law
India / 06 November 2012 / India, High Court of Bombay / Masumi SA Investment LLC v. Keystone Realtors and ors / Company Appeal (L) No. 47 of 2012
Country | India |
Court | India, High Court of Bombay |
Date | 06 November 2012 |
Parties | Masumi SA Investment LLC v. Keystone Realtors and ors |
Case number | Company Appeal (L) No. 47 of 2012 |
Source |
http://www.judis.nic.in (website of the decisions of the Supreme Court as well as several High Courts) |
Languages | English |
Summary | Masumi SA Investment LLC (“Masumi”) entered into a shareholder agreement with Keystone Realtors (“Keystone”), which provided for arbitration in Mumbai. Masumi filed a claim before the Company Law Board (“CLB”) alleging that Keystone and the other respondents had mismanaged the affairs of some of the respondent companies. The second respondent filed an application to the CLB under Section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 (the “1996 Act”) to have the proceeding referred to arbitration. The CLB found for the second respondent and stayed the proceedings before it, referring the matter to arbitration. Masumi applied to the High Court of Bombay, seeking to appeal the decision of the CLB by relying on Section 10F of the Companies Act 1956, which, as the Court remarked, allowed “any person aggrieved by a decision or order of the Company Law Board … [to] file an appeal to the High Court”. The High Court of Bombay rejected Masumi’s application and ordered that the matter be referred to arbitration. In reaching this conclusion, the High Court relied on Section 37 of the 1996 Act, a section which the High Court considered as setting out the situations in which a court order may be appealed when concerning arbitration. Importantly, the High Court referred to Section 50 of the 1996 Act, which – the High Court remarked – “applies to international arbitration covered by New York Convention [sic]”. The High Court noted that, under Section 50 of the 1996 Act, an appeal against an order is possible only if the order refuses to refer the matter to arbitration; when the order is for the matter to be referred to arbitration, Section 50 does not allow for an appeal. The High Court used the provision in Section 50 by analogy, to illuminate the effect of Section 37. In conclusion, the High Court considered that the 1996 Act is “a self contained, complete and exhaustive code in all respects”. In the Court’s view, since Section 37 did not mention the right to appeal against an order referring parties to arbitration, no such remedy lied in the present case. |
Attachment (1)
Original Language Adobe Acrobat PDF |