Supreme Court: Deciding the question as to whether an appeal against the judgment of the Single Judge in an international arbitration matter is appealable to the Division Bench or to put it otherwise, whether the intra-court appeal would lie because of the Letters Patent, the Court held that such appeal is maintainable before the division bench and has to be treated as an appeal under Section 50(1) (b) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 and has to be adjudicated within the said parameters.
Rejecting the argument that the Letters Patent Appeal was not available in arbitration matters and Section 13 of the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of the High Courts Act, 2015, the Court held that Section 13 of the 2015 Act bars an appeal under Letters Patent unless an appeal is provided under the 1996 Act. Such an appeal is provided under Section 5 of the 2015 Act where a forum is created, i.e., Commercial Appellate Division. The Letters Patent Appeal could not have been invoked if Section 50 of the 1996 Act would not have provided for an appeal. But it does provide for an appeal. Section 50(1)(b) of 1996 Act has not been amended by the 2015 Act that has come into force on 23.10.2015. Thus, an appeal under Section 50(1)(b) of the 1996 Act before the Division Bench is maintainable.
The bench of DIpak Misra and C. Nagappan, JJ, hence, held that a conspectus reading of Sections 5 and 13 of the 2015 Act and Section 50 of the 1996 Act which has remained unamended leads to the irresistible conclusion that a Letters Patent Appeal is maintainable before the Division Bench. [Arun Dev Upadhyaya v. Integrated Sales Service Ltd, 2016 SCC OnLine SC 1053, decided on 30.09.2016]
