Composite arbitration clauses can treat a trade association committee as part of the arbitral machinery, allowing its award to be filed in court.

A contract and incorporated trade-association rules may form a composite arbitration arrangement under the Indian Arbitration Act, including a further reference to a committee after an umpire's award. The Act is concerned with the substance of the agreed dispute-resolution mechanism, not the label given to the final tribunal. On that basis, the committee was treated as part of the arbitral machinery, effectively as a fresh tribunal or umpire, and its award remained capable of being filed in court even though the parties described the reference as an appeal and prior awards had already been made.

---

---

Issues: Whether an award made by the committee of the trade association, acting under the contract as a further tribunal after the umpire, could be filed in Court under the Indian Arbitration Act.

Analysis: The contract and the association rules formed part of a composite arbitration arrangement under which disputes were first referred to two arbitrators, then to an umpire, and thereafter, in the stated contingencies, to the committee as a further tribunal. The Act was held not to be confined to a rigid description of the deciding body, and the substance of the arrangement had to be examined. On that approach, the committee was treated as a fresh set of arbitrators, or in effect an umpire, and the fact that the parties called the further reference an appeal did not alter its arbitral character. The existence of prior awards did not prevent the final award from being capable of filing.

Conclusion: The committee's award was held to be capable of being filed in Court, and the order taking it off the file was set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a contract and incorporated rules contemplate a further reference to another agreed tribunal after an umpire's award, that tribunal is to be treated as part of the arbitral machinery, and its award may be filed under the Act despite its description as an appeal committee.

---