Calcutta High Court
M/S Aadarsh Tradlink Limited vs M/S Rccpl Private Limited on 16 July, 2025
OCD-22
ORDER SHEET
IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
COMMERCIAL DIVISION
ORIGINAL SIDE
IA NO: GA-COM/1/2025
IN CS-COM/27/2025
M/S AADARSH TRADLINK LIMITED
VS
M/S RCCPL PRIVATE LIMITED
BEFORE:
The Hon'ble JUSTICE KRISHNA RAO
Date: July 16, 2025.
Appearance :
Mr. Tapan Coomar Dey, Adv.
Mr. Vijay Nath Jha, Adv.
Ms. Shreya Chatterjee, Adv.
Mr. Sourav Ganguly, Adv.
... for the plaintiff
Mr. Samrat Sen, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Arif Ali, Adv.
Mr. Iftekr Munsif, Adv.
Mr. Prabhat Kr. Srivastawa, Adv.
Ms. Ankita Singh, Adv.
... for the defendant
1.
The defendant has filed the present application being GA-
COM/1/2025 praying for dismissal of the suit and referring the
parties to the arbitration.
2. Mr. Samrat Sen, Learned Senior Advocate representing the defendant
draws the attention of this Court to the agreement entered between
the parties dated 26th February, 2019 along with General Conditions
of Contract under Chapter-5, wherein in clause 18.7 there is an
arbitration clause which reads as follows:
“If the efforts to resolve all or any of the disputes, differences or
controversy through negotiation fail, then such disputes or
2differences or controversy, whatsoever arising between the
Parties, arising out of or relating to manufacture/construction,
measuring operation or effect of the Contract or the breach thereof
shall be referred to arbitration in accordance with the following
provisions:
(a) Matters to be arbitrated upon shall be referred to a sole
arbitrator. The sole arbitrator shall be appointed mutually by
the Parties and in case the parties fail to agree on the sole
arbitrator, then the sole arbitrator shall be appointed in
accordance with the provisions of the Arbitration and
Conciliation Act, 1996. In the arbitration panel, each Party
shall nominate one (1) arbitrator each and the third arbitrator
shall be chosen by the two (2) arbitrators nominated by the
Parties. The arbitrator(s) shall be appointed within a period of
thirty (30) days from the date of receipt of written
notice/demand of appointment of arbitrator from either Party.
(b) The arbitration proceedings shall be held in Kolkata. The
language of proceedings, documents and communication shall
be English.
(c) The award of the sole arbitrator or the award by majority of
three arbitrators as the case may be shall be binding on all
Parties.”
3
3. Mr. Sen submits that relying upon the said arbitration clause,
the plaintiff had issued a notice under Section 21 of the
Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 on 5th September, 2022
for appointment of Arbitrator. On receipt of the said notice, the
defendant has replied to the plaintiff intimating that invocation
of the Arbitration Clause is premature in presence of
negotiation clause thereto and requested the plaintiff to
complete the first steps then you can invoke the second step for
appointment of Arbitrator. Subsequently, the plaintiff had
issued the notice of demand under Rule-5 of the Insolvency and
Bankruptcy for initiation of the proceeding under the I.B.C. The
plaintiff has initiated proceeding before the NCLT being
Company Petition (IB) No. 67/MB of 2022. When the matter
was taken up by the Learned Tribunal, Learned Counsel for the
plaintiff informed the Tribunal that the plaintiff is intending to
continue with the arbitration proceeding.
4. Accordingly, the proceeding initiated before the National
Company Law Tribunal was withdrawn and the same was
dismissed. Instead of initiation of arbitration proceeding, the
plaintiff has filed the present suit.
5. Learned Counsel for the plaintiff submits that if the Court refers
the matter to the arbitration, the plaintiff will take appropriate
steps.
6. In view of the submission made by the Counsel for the parties
and after perusing the arbitration clause, this Court finds that
4
the suit is not maintainable as there is an arbitration clause
between the parties and the plaintiff has acted upon the
Arbitration Clause of the said agreement.
7. In view of the above, the parties are directed to take appropriate
steps for appointment of arbitrator in accordance with the
Clause 18.7 of the General Conditions of Contract appearing at
page 145 of the present application.
8. Accordingly, CS-COM/27/2025 is dismissed and GA-
COM/1/2025 is disposed of.
(KRISHNA RAO, J.)
DB