https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=197756 Under Section 20 of the Arbitration Act, 1940, the Court must first decide whether the dispute falls within the arbitration agreement, and claims excluded by contract as "excepted matters" are non-arbitrable. The Court held that contractual bars such as no-claim or no-liability clauses, including exclusions for escalation, idle machinery charges, and delay claims, take the dispute outside arbitration, so reference must be refused. It further held that an excepted matter does not require a separate departmental or in-house remedy; the absence of such a remedy does not make the barred claim arbitrable. The High Court's reference to arbitration was therefore unsustainable and the refusal of reference was restored. en-us Fri, 01 Mar 2002 00:00:00 +0530 Mon, 15 Jan 2018 13:12:38 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=197756 Under Section 20 of the Arbitration Act, 1940, the Court must first decide whether the dispute falls within the arbitration agreement, and claims excluded by contract as "excepted matters" are non-arbitrable. The Court held that contractual bars such as no-claim or no-liability clauses, including exclusions for escalation, idle machinery charges, and delay claims, take the dispute outside arbitration, so reference must be refused. It further held that an excepted matter does not require a separate departmental or in-house remedy; the absence of such a remedy does not make the barred claim arbitrable. The High Court's reference to arbitration was therefore unsustainable and the refusal of reference was restored. Case-Laws Companies Law Fri, 01 Mar 2002 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=197756