Writ jurisdiction cannot bypass the MSMED Act's statutory challenge route or the mandatory pre-deposit for award challenges.

Proceedings before the Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council under Section 18 of the MSMED Act are governed by the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, and any challenge to the resulting award lies under Section 34 of that Act. Section 19 makes a seventy-five per cent pre-deposit mandatory as a condition for entertaining such a challenge. Writ jurisdiction under Articles 226 and 227 cannot be used to bypass this statutory framework or avoid the pre-deposit requirement. The article notes that the limitation issue did not require separate adjudication once the writ petition was found not maintainable.

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Issues: Whether a writ petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India was maintainable to challenge an award of the Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council when the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 provides a statutory challenge under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 subject to the pre-deposit requirement under Section 19 of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006.

Analysis: Proceedings before the Facilitation Council under Section 18 of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 are governed by the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, and a challenge to the resulting award lies under Section 34 of that Act. Section 19 imposes a mandatory pre-deposit of seventy-five per cent of the award amount as a condition for entertaining such a challenge. Resort to writ jurisdiction to avoid that statutory discipline would defeat the scheme and object of the special enactment. The merits of the limitation issue did not require adjudication once the writ petition was held to be not maintainable.

Conclusion: The writ petition was not maintainable, and the challenge to the Facilitation Council's award had to be pursued through the statutory remedy under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, subject to Section 19 of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a special statute provides a complete statutory mechanism for challenging an arbitral award and imposes a pre-deposit condition, writ jurisdiction cannot be invoked to bypass that statutory remedy.

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