Corporate Lawyer: In arbitration matters, the courts situated at seat of arbitration, has exclusive jurisdiction; SC.

Supreme Court of India

Justice R Banumathi and Justice A S Bopanna

The SC {Brahmani River Pellets Limited versus Kamachi Industries Limited} holds that as the parties have agreed to have the venue of arbitration at Bhubaneswar, the Madras High Court has no jurisdiction under section 11(6) of the Act to appoint arbitrator as only the Orissa High Court will have exclusive jurisdiction to entertain the petition filed under Section 11(6) of the Act.

It was held that when the contract specifies the jurisdiction of the Court at a particular place, only such Court will have the exclusive jurisdiction to deal with the matter, and parties intended to exclude all other Courts. And there is no need to use words like - exclusive, only, alone etc. to confer exclusive jurisdiction on the Court mentioned in the agreement. It was further held that in present arbitration matter by agreeing to the venue of the arbitration at Bhubaneswar; the intention of the parties was to exclude all other Courts except the Court having jurisdiction at Bhubaneshwar.