S.K.Singhi & Partners, successfully defended the challenge to an application under section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, filed by our clients for appointment of arbitrator which was challenged by the respondents on various grounds notably inter alia that the original agreement or the certified copy was not produced and is not in accordance with clause 3 of the scheme of appointment of arbitrators framed by the then Chief Justice of the Hon’ble High Court at Calcutta and notified on 21st January 1997, the respondent further contended MoU containing the Arbitration clause is neither registered nor sufficiently stamped, further that the MoU results in transferring or assigning the tenancy rights and is barred under  Sec 5(6) of the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act, 1997.

Sec 11(2) of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 debars performance of contract which are in excess of powers given to the trustees and the MoU purports to transfer the business, management and property rights of the trust and as such the prior permission of the competent civil court is required.

The challenge was successfully fought and after hearing the parties the Hon’ble High Court at Calcutta passed a reasoned order in AP No. 186 of 2023 (Chandan Chatterjee and Ors VS. Gita Sundararaman and Ors) whereby the application under Section 11 was allowed and an Arbitrator was appointed.

The Litigation Team was led by Mr. Ankur Singhi, Joint Managing Partner and assisted by Ms. Riti Basu, Principal Associate; Mr. Sumon Roy, Senior Associate and Mr. Sayan Banerjee, Associate; Counsel Mr. Jishnu Chowdhury and Mr. Aritra Basu appeared for the Petitioners.