TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2015 (3) TMI 1425
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....e agreement. It is specifically contended that the respondents pleaded in para-3 of the plaint that there was an agreement between the petitioner and respondents for appointment of one P.V. Subba Rao as arbitrator for interpretation of the agreement. In view of the arbitration clause, the dispute before the civil Court has to be referred to the arbitrator to settle the dispute between the petitioner and respondents, as the respondents themselves admitted about arbitration clause for referring the dispute to P. Subba Rao and the suit is not maintainable before a civil Court. Hence, the petitioner sought to refer the matter to arbitrator, invoking arbitration clause contained in the agreement as pleaded by the respondents and prayed to refer the dispute between the petitioner and respondents to the arbitrator, P. Subba Rao for settlement and to grant of stay of all further proceedings. 4. Upon hearing argument of both the counsel, the trial Court dismissed the petition on the ground that the arbitral dispute is only for interpretation of terms of agreement but not for resolving any other disputes. Therefore, the dispute for recovery of possession and mesne profits is beyond the scop....
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.... is irrelevant when there is no ambiguity in the language used in the arbitration clause in the agreement. 10. Basing on the above three contentions, the learned Senior Counsel contended that the interpretation of the arbitration clause by the trial Court is based on the settled principles of law. Consequently, the revision deserves to be dismissed, as it is devoid of merits and prayed to dismiss the petition. 11. Considering the contentions of both the counsel, the point for consideration is: "Whether the arbitration clause covered reference of the dispute relating to delivery of possession and mesne profits, if not, is the impugned order be sustained?" 12. This revision is preferred under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, the powers of revision under Article 227 are limited, this Court can exercise supervisory powers under Article 227, over all the Courts and Tribunals subordinate to it through out the State. In fact the power under this Article casts upon this Court is to keep the inferior Courts and Tribunals within the limits of their authority and that they did not cross the limits, ensuring the performance of duties by such Courts and Tribunals in accordance wit....
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.... Article 227 of the Constitution we have any power to interfere with the conclusions of that Tribunal 17. In the instant case, the dispute is only with regard to interpretation of clause (8) in paragraph No. 3 of the plaint, regarding the reference of dispute with regard to interpretation of clauses in the contract to P. Subba Rao, if, the principle laid down by Bombay High Court applied to the present facts of the case, this Court cannot exercise its jurisdiction under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, since, the only ground raised in this revision is interpretation of the clause in the agreement. 18. Normally, the question of interpretation would arise when there is an ambiguity in the language used in the document but the language used in the clause 8 of para 3 of the plaint is not ambiguous and the clauses are extracted here under for better appreciation. "(i) Sale of Suit property at Rs. 45 lakhs with BRS by defendant/tenant or Rs. 48 lakhs with BRS by plaintiffs/landlords, to be opted by plaintiffs on or before 25-07-2009. (ii) 30th September fixed date for payment and registration or agreement of sale with GPA. Tenancy terminated mutually w.e.f.30-09-2009. (i....
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....rther drawn the attention of this Court in S.N. Prasad, Hiteck Industries (Bihar) Limited v. Monnet Finance Limited, where the Apex Court ruled as follows: "The words, statement of claim and defence occurring in Section 7(4)(c) of the Act, are not restricted to the statements of claim and defence filed before the arbitrator. If there is an assertion of existence of an arbitration agreement in the any suit, petition or application filed before any court, and if there is no denial thereof in the defence/counter/written statement thereto filed by the other party to such suit, petition or application, then it can be said that there is an exchange of statements of claim and defence for the purpose of Section 7(4)(c) of the Act. If in the application filed under Section 11 of the Act, the applicant asserts the existence of an arbitration agreement with each of the respondent and if the respondents do not deny the said assertion in their statement of defence, the court can proceed on the basis that there is an arbitration agreement in writing between the parties." 22. The principle laid down by the Apex Court is of no assistance regarding interpretation of clause relating to arbitratio....
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....meaning the writer of the words had in his mind, i.e., his intention? Whether it means (i) or (ii), the process would be that in the case of (ii) intention has to be ascertained by reference to the words used to express it. Unexpressed intention has not to be considered, but courts can consider presumed intention while interpreting a document. Thus, the modern law can be said to be that the purpose of interpretation is two-fold: (i) to ascertain the intention as expressed in the words, i.e., to consider what has actually been said; (ii) to consider what the parties intended to have said or ought to have said but did not, either because they never visualized such a state of circumstances arising or for any other reason. The task of interpretation would be easy if it were just to discover the intention of the parties as expressed in words. But the task of the court is to ascertain what the parties would have said or what they would have intended if the point had been considered by them at that time. The task involves a guessing game, which in legal terminology is called presumed intention. Any attempt to interpret the terms of document based on presumed intention is described as Cour....
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....ther against him, the interpretation against that party has to be preferred. 11. If two interpretation of a contract are possible the one which helps to make the contract operative to be preferred to the other which tends to make it inoperative 12. In case of conflict between printed clauses and typed clauses, type clauses are to be preferred. Similarly, in conflict between printed and hand written clauses, hand written clauses are to be preferred and in the event of conflict between typed and hand written clauses, the hand written calluses are to be preferred 13. the special will exclude the general 14. Rule of expression unius est exclusion alterius 15. Rule of noscitus a sociss 16. Ejusdem generic rule will apply both the contract and statute 17. place of Punctuation in interpretation of documents" 27. From the Rules stated above, when the language used in a document is unambiguous conveying clear meaning, the Court has to interpret the document or any condition therein taking into consideration of the literal meaning of the words in the document. When there is ambiguity, the intention of the parties has to be looked into. Ordinarily the parties use apt words to e....
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....ch contention cannot be accepted for the reason that the entire document is not before us to know the intention of the parties after reading the entire document. However in VISA International Ltd. v. Continental Resources (USA) Ltd., the Supreme Court held in para 25 as follows: No party can be allowed to take advantage of inartistic drafting of arbitration clause in any agreement as long as clear intention of parties to go for arbitration in case of any future disputes is evident from the agreement and material on record including surrounding circumstances 30. In the instant case, the clause relating to reference of dispute to the arbitrator is unambiguous and no part of the clause creates any amount of doubt or ambiguity to consider the intention of the parties. By strict interpretation of the clause, taking into consideration of literal meaning of the words used in the clause, we find no reason to interpret in any other manner than the interpretation given by the trial Court. Therefore, we are unable to conclude that the clause covers the reference of any other dispute with regard to the contract as contended by the learned counsel for revision petitioner. 31. In Gaya Electric....
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....tion clause covers. In Heymans case (D) the arbitration clause was comprehensive and covered the dispute between the parties in respect of the agreement or in respect of any provision in the agreement, or in respect of anything arising out of it What has to be determined in this case, irrespective of the validity of the claim and the counter claim of the parties, be it untenable, frivolous or vexatious, is whether the dispute is one which involves the interpretation of the contract or which arises there under. It will be deemed to arise under the contract for the purposes of the arbitration clause if recourse is had to the terms of the contract itself, as negativing the claim of the respondent or as establishing the claim of the appellant." 34. On close analysis of the above judgments, the recourse open to the Court is to advert to the language used in the document to determine whether clause embraces any question which may arise between the parties or not. In the present case, the clause (viii) of para 3 of plaint covered reference of agreement to the arbitrator P. Subba Rao only for limited purpose of interpretation of the agreement, not the dispute regarding recovery of posse....