Statutory limits on arbitration prevented a wrongful disconnection damages claim from being referred under supply conditions.

A special statute controlling electricity supply disputes prevailed over the general law of arbitration, so a contractual condition could not expand arbitrable matters beyond the statute. The Court held that the Indian Electricity Act, 1910 limited arbitration to the classes of disputes expressly identified by it, and a claim for damages arising from alleged wrongful disconnection did not fall within that statutory scheme or the Electrical Inspector route. Condition 29 of the supply terms therefore could not render the dispute arbitrable, and the consumer's remedy, if any, lay in civil court.

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Issues: Whether the dispute arising out of alleged wrongful disconnection of electricity supply and claim for damages could be referred to arbitration under Condition 29 of the Abridged Conditions of Supply, or whether the Indian Electricity Act, 1910 excluded such arbitration and left the consumer to civil remedies.

Analysis: Condition 29 had to be read subject to the Indian Electricity Act, 1910. The Act was a special statute and, on the principle of generalia specialibus non derogant, its scheme prevailed over the general law of arbitration and over subordinate conditions framed by the Board. The matters expressly made arbitrable under the Act were limited to those specifically identified by the statute. The dispute about damages for disconnection was not one of the disputes directed by the Act to be determined by arbitration, nor was it referable to the Electrical Inspector under the statutory provisions invoked. Since subordinate conditions could not enlarge the statutory field of arbitration, Condition 29 could not make the present dispute arbitrable in derogation of the Act.

Conclusion: The dispute was not arbitrable under the Act despite Condition 29, and the consumer's proper remedy, if any, lay before the civil court.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a special statute prescribes the classes of disputes that may be determined by arbitration, a contractual or regulatory condition cannot enlarge that statutory arbitrability, because subordinate legislation and general arbitration law yield to the special statutory scheme.

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