Manash Kamal Bezboruah Vs Bokahola Tea Company Private Limited & Ors. (Supreme Court of India)
Summary: The Supreme Court considered whether the Gauhati High Court was justified in entertaining a Civil Revision Petition under Article 227 of the Constitution against an order of the Arbitral Tribunal rejecting applications by Respondent Nos. 1 to 3 seeking deletion of their names from the arbitral proceedings. The appeals challenged the High Court’s interim order dated 02.09.2025 staying notices issued to Respondent Nos. 1 to 3 and its order dated 28.01.2026 rejecting the Appellant’s preliminary objection to the maintainability of the revision petition.
The dispute arose from the partnership firm M/s Boloma Tea Company, constituted on 19.09.1948. A partnership deed dated 16.11.1976 contained an arbitration clause providing that disputes or differences among the partners, if unresolved, would be referred to arbitration before a mutually agreed third party. The Appellant had instituted Title Suit No. 38 of 2012 before the Civil Judge (Senior Division), Jorhat, seeking, among other reliefs, rendition of accounts relating to the affairs of the respondent companies. An application under Section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“the Act”) was rejected by the Trial Court on 07.08.2014, inter alia, on the ground that several defendants were non-signatories to the arbitration agreement. The High Court affirmed that decision on 01.11.2021.
