SC irked by high court’s ‘cryptic’ order

The Supreme Court last week criticised the Bombay High Court for dismissing an arbitration appeal with a “cryptic” order when neither party was present before it. The judgment said: “The high court while dismissing the appeal did not set out even the factual controversy properly nor dealt with any of the grounds taken by the parties.” In this appeal case, Navnirman Development Consultants vs District Sports Complex, the work on the sports complex in Pune was completed in 2005, but the bill was not paid. The contractor sought arbitration and asked the state authorities to appoint its arbitrator. It was not done; so the high court appointed the arbitration tribunal. It gave a ~25 lakh award in favour of the contractor. The government authorities moved the district court which reduced the award to ~7 lakh. This led to an appeal in the high court and the “cryptic reasoning” by which the contractor’s pleas were dismissed with a short note. The Supreme Court asked the high court to reconsider the contractor’s appeal on merits and dispose of it expeditiously in view of the decade-old delay in adjudication. “The least which was expected of the high court was to give brief facts and brief reasons to enable the superior court to examine the legalities,” the judgment said. The court had earlier too decried the practice of high courts and tribunals giving “non-speaking” orders disabling it from examining the factual and legal issues raised before it.