M/S Sps Steels Rolling Mills Limited vs Sankar Santra on 7 April, 2025

Calcutta High Court

M/S Sps Steels Rolling Mills Limited vs Sankar Santra on 7 April, 2025

Author: Shampa Sarkar

Bench: Shampa Sarkar

OC-9
                           AP-COM/404/2024
                    IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
                  ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION
                         COMMERCIAL DIVISON


                  M/S SPS STEELS ROLLING MILLS LIMITED
                                   VS
                             SANKAR SANTRA


  BEFORE:
  The Hon'ble JUSTICE SHAMPA SARKAR
  Date : 7th April, 2025.


                                                                     Appearance:
                                                          Mr. Debraj Sahu, Adv.
                                                           . . .for the petitioner.


       The Court: Paper publication has been effected as per the order dated

March 3, 2025 in two widely circulated dailies i.e. The Economic Times and Ei

Samay.

       Despite such substituted service, none appears on behalf of the

respondent.

Under such circumstances, the matter is taken up in the absence of the

respondent.

The petitioner supplied TMT bars to one Panchanan Santra, the original

proprietor of M/s. Sarbani Enterprise. Allegedly, payments in full and final

settlement of the invoices raised by the petitioner have not been made.

Panchanan Santra died. His son took over the business as the sole proprietor of

Sarbani Enterprise. Petitioner informed the respondent (son of Panchanan

Santra) that a sum of Rs.21,27,924/- was due and payable as on July 14, 2021.
2

In reply to the said letter, the respondent by letter dated July 20, 2021 requested

for some time to liquidate the dues. The petitioner contends that some business

activities were also undertaken by the parties, amongst themselves. Allegedly,

by a supplementary memorandum of understanding dated April 11, 2022, the

parties agreed that a further sum would be payable to the tune of Rs.15,87,924/-

. The said memorandum of understanding contains an arbitration clause. The

seat of arbitration has been mentioned as Kolkata or any other place as the

Arbitrator decides. The High Court at Calcutta was agreed to have exclusive

jurisdiction in the matter.

The petitioner seeks enforcement of the arbitration clause contained in the

said memorandum of understanding, on the ground that the payments were still

due and the terms of the memorandum of understanding had not been adhered

to.

Moreover, a cheque which was issued for Rs.19,51,066/- was returned by

the bank, with the endorsement, “no advice received.”

Under such circumstances, a notice under Section 21 of the Arbitration

and Conciliation Act, 1996 was issued to the respondent. The respondent

received the same. Despite such receipt, the respondent did not react to the

notice dated June 5, 2023.

Admittedly, the memorandum of understanding dated April 11, 2022 which

has been captioned as “Memorandum of Understanding Supplementary” contains

an arbitration clause. There appears to be a live dispute. In any event, the

referral court is only required to ascertain whether there is an existing arbitration

clause or not. Apart from such, prima facie, evidence of an arbitration clause,
3

the other issues with regard to jurisdiction of the Arbitrator to decide the claim of

the petitioner, arbitrability of the issues and admissibility of the claims, including

the point of limitation etc. are to be decided in the arbitral proceeding. Keeping

all the above issues open for the learned Arbitrator to take a decision if raised by

the respondents, the application is disposed of by appointing Mr. Shayak Mitra

(mobile 7439503011) to arbitrate upon the disputes between the parties. This

order is subject to compliance of Section 12 of the Arbitration and Conciliation

Act, 1996.

The learned Arbitrator shall fix his own remuneration as per the provisions

of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act.

AP COM/404/2024 is, accordingly, disposed of.

(SHAMPA SARKAR, J.)

sp/