“In a very recent judgment delivered on 10.09.2014 in Civil Appeal No. 6691 of 2005, State of West Bengal and Ors. v. Associated Contractors, the 3-Judge Bench (speaking through one of us, Rohinton Fali Nariman, J.), noticing the decisions of this Court in FCI represented by Managing Director and Anr. v. A.M. Ahmed & Co. through MD and Anr. (2001) 10 SCC 532 (para 6); Neycer India Ltd. v. GNB Ceramics Ltd. (2002) 9 SCC 489 (para 3) with reference to Section 31(4) of the Arbitration Act, 1940 and the decisions of this Court in Jatinder Nath v. Chopra Land Developers Pvt. Ltd. (2007) 11 SCC 453 (para 9); Rajasthan State Electrical Board v. Universal Petrol Chemical Limited (2009) 3 SCC 107 (paras 33 to 36) and Swastik Gases (P) Ltd. v. Indian Oil Corporation 2013 (9) SCC 32 (para 32), held that where the agreement between the parties restricted jurisdiction to only one particular court, that court alone would have jurisdiction as neither Section 31(4) nor Section 42 (of the 1996 Act) contains a non-obstante clause wiping out a contrary agreement between the parties. On the basis of the above decisions, it was further held that applications preferred to courts outside the exclusive court agreed to by parties would also be without jurisdiction.”
