Case Law Details
Haryana Space Application Centre (Harsac) & Anr Vs Pan India Consultants Pvt. Ltd (Supreme Court of India)
We are of the view that the appointment of the Principal Secretary, Government of Haryana as the nominee arbitrator of HARSAC which is a Nodal Agency of the Government of Haryana, would be invalid under Section 12(5) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 read with the Seventh Schedule. Section 12(5) of the Arbitration Act, 1996 (as amended by the 2015 Amendment Act) provides that notwithstanding any prior agreement to the contrary, any person whose relationship with the parties, or counsel, falls within any of the categories specified in the Seventh Schedule, shall be ineligible to be appointed as an arbitrator.
FULL TEXT OF THE SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT/ORDER
1. The Appellant No. 1 / HARSAC, Department of Science & Technology, Government of Haryana is the nodal agency for Geographic Information System (“GIS”) Application and Remote Sensing for the Government of Haryana. The Ministry of Rural Development, Department of Land Resources designated HARSAC as the nodal agency for the State of Haryana. HARSAC invited Request for Proposal in September 2010 from qualified vendors for the modernisation of Land Record (including digitisation of cadastral Maps, Integration with records and management of old revenue documents). HARSAC vide Letter dated 28.02.2011 awarded the contract to the Respondent – Pan India Consultants Pvt. Ltd, and three other vendors for works specified in the allotment letter. In pursuance thereof, Service Level Agreements were executed between the parties.
Clause 6.11 of the Service Level Agreement dated 29.03.2011 in the present case contains an arbitration clause, which reads as under :
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