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Can High Court exercise its writ discretion to grant opportunity for cross examine, despite the Arbitral Tribunal having rejected such a prayer?

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Disputes arose between the parties, which were referred to Arbitration. Proceedings commenced before the Arbitral Tribunal and the parties submitted their respective statement of claim and defence. The Tribunal framed the issues for consideration and fixed dates for cross examination of witnesses. 


The Claimant produced 2 witnesses whose cross examination was concluded over the course of 2 sessions.


The Claimants then proceeded to cross examine the Respondents witness. The cross examination continued, when the claimants sought permission of the Tribunal to defer the cross-examination to some other day and sought an additional hour for completing the cross- examination of RW-1. The Tribunal acceded to respondent/claimant’s request for additional time for cross-examination.


However, the cross examination was cancelled and the proceedings kept getting delayed. Meanwhile, the mandate of the Tribunal was also extended by 6 months.  The cross examination was finally concluded after extension of the mandate.


The Claimants, however, filed an interlocutory application before the Tribunal  and sought to extend the time for examination of the Respondents witness. 


The tribunal rejected the application and directed the parties to commence the final arguments.


The Claimants approached the High Court, which held that the present case warranted a direction to the Tribunal to grant further opportunity to the claimants to cross-examine Respondents Witness, on the date and time fixed by the Tribunal.


The order was challenged before the Supreme Court. 


The Supreme Court observed that High Courts ought not to interfere with orders passed by the Arbitral Tribunals unless the order passed by the Tribunal is ‘completely perverse, i.e. that the perversity must stare in the face.’


As the High Court had not observed any such perversity in the order of the Arbitral Tribunal, the Supreme Court, did not find any justification in the order of the High Court. 


The Apex court allowed the appeals and set aside the orders of the High Court with directions to the Arbitral Tribunal to resume and conclude the proceedings expeditiously. 


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