Alsina Formwork India Private Limited v. Dogus Soma Jv
Case brief
What is this about?
Section 11(6A) Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 narrow scope of judicial review at referral stage; existence of validly executed arbitration agreement; existential substance questions reserved to arbitral tribunal under Section 16; In Re: Interplay (2024) 6 SCC 1 followed; SBI General Insurance v. Krish Spinning 2024 SCC OnLine 1974 relied on; Ajay Madhusudan Patel 2024 SCC OnLine 2597 relied on; appointment of sole arbitrator Dinesh Bishnoi; Section 9 ad-interim injunction over formwork and shuttering material pending consideration as Section 17 application; no reply to arbitration invocation dated December 2, 2024; Service Orders dated February 16, 2021, August 30, 2022, September 4, 2021; Clause 14 arbitration agreement; Bombay High Court Commercial Division; merits expressly kept open; arbitral costs shared equally in first instance.
What did the court decide?
Both the Section 11 Application and the Section 9 Petition were finally disposed of: (i) Mr. Dinesh Bishnoi appointed Sole Arbitrator, with a copy of the order to be communicated to him by the Applicant's advocates within one week of upload; (ii) ad-interim injunction restraining the Respondent from using, alienating, transferring, selling, hypothecating or disposing of the Applicant's formwork and shuttering material until the arbitral tribunal convenes to consider the Section 9 Petition as an application under Section 17 of the Act; (iii) the Sole Arbitrator to convene within a week of being approached and to forward the statutory disclosure under Section 11(8) read with Section 12(1) of the Act; (iv) arbitral costs and fees of the Tribunal to be borne equally by the parties in the first instance, subject to any final award on costs.