Exhaustive appeal scheme under arbitration law bars use of company law appeal forum against a section 8 referral order.

An appeal under section 10F of the Companies Act, 1956 was not maintainable against an order of the Company Law Board passed under section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 referring the parties to arbitration. The order was made by the Board as a judicial authority under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, so any appellate remedy had to arise under that Act itself. Section 37 provides an exhaustive list of appealable orders and, by using the words "and from no others," excludes an appeal from a section 8 order. Section 10F only supplies the forum where an appeal is otherwise competent and does not create a substantive right of appeal.

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Issues: Whether an appeal under section 10F of the Companies Act, 1956 was maintainable against the order of the Company Law Board passed under section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 referring the parties to arbitration.

Analysis: The order impugned before the Court was passed by the Company Law Board in its capacity as a judicial authority under section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, and not in exercise of jurisdiction under sections 397, 398 and 402 of the Companies Act, 1956. The remedy of appeal, if any, therefore had to be found within the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 itself. The Court held that section 37 of that Act contains an exhaustive list of appealable orders and, by using the words "and from no others", excludes an appeal from an order passed under section 8. It further held that section 10F of the Companies Act merely provides the forum for an appeal where an appeal is otherwise competent, and does not create a substantive right of appeal where the Arbitration and Conciliation Act does not provide one.

Conclusion: An appeal under section 10F was not maintainable against the order passed under section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.

Final Conclusion: The appeals failed at the threshold for want of a statutory appellate remedy against the section 8 order, and the connected company applications did not survive.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a special statute provides an exhaustive appeal scheme, an appellate forum under another statute cannot be invoked unless the substantive right of appeal is first created by the governing statute.

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