https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=775137 The SC dismissed an appeal challenging the HC's refusal to appoint an arbitrator under Section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The dispute arose from a transportation/handling contract where the appellant claimed Clause 13 constituted an arbitration agreement. The SC held that courts must examine the existence of arbitration agreements prima facie under Section 11(6-A) through plain reading without conducting mini-trials. The Court found Clause 13 merely provided a two-stage dispute resolution procedure with arbitration as an optional method using "may," not creating a binding arbitration agreement under Section 7. Since parties never subsequently agreed to arbitration, and Clause 13 did not establish a valid arbitration agreement, the application was properly rejected. Clause 32 regarding jurisdiction did not affect this conclusion as no arbitration agreement existed. en-us Fri, 18 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0530 Mon, 21 Jul 2025 08:43:53 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=775137 The SC dismissed an appeal challenging the HC's refusal to appoint an arbitrator under Section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The dispute arose from a transportation/handling contract where the appellant claimed Clause 13 constituted an arbitration agreement. The SC held that courts must examine the existence of arbitration agreements prima facie under Section 11(6-A) through plain reading without conducting mini-trials. The Court found Clause 13 merely provided a two-stage dispute resolution procedure with arbitration as an optional method using "may," not creating a binding arbitration agreement under Section 7. Since parties never subsequently agreed to arbitration, and Clause 13 did not establish a valid arbitration agreement, the application was properly rejected. Clause 32 regarding jurisdiction did not affect this conclusion as no arbitration agreement existed. Case-Laws Indian Laws Fri, 18 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=775137