Research › Search › Judgment

Jharkhand High Court · body

2022 DIGILAW 335 (JHR)

Shailesh Kumar Jain v. State of Jharkhand

2022-03-24

RAJESH SHANKAR

body2022
ORDER : 1. The present writ petition has been filed for quashing the conciliation award under Ref. No. MSEFC/DIC/LDH/01/20/511 dated 28th January, 2021 (Annexure-3 to the writ petition) passed by the respondent no. 2 without making signatures of all the members of the District Level Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council, Ludhiana, constituted in terms with the provision of Section 21 of the MSME Act, 2006 (hereinafter to be referred as ‘the Act 2006’). Further prayer has been made for issuance of direction upon the respondent no. 2 to conduct a fresh conciliation proceeding as per the provisions enshrined in the Act, 2006. The petitioner has also prayed for issuance of direction upon the respondent no. 2 to follow the mandate of Section 18(2) of the Act, 2006 for referring the matter to any other alternative dispute resolution forum. 2. Learned A.C. to G.A. II appearing on behalf of the respondent no. 1 raises preliminary objection with regard to maintainability of the writ petition on the ground that the petitioner has the efficacious remedy of challenging the impugned award dated 28th January, 2021 under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. 3. On this, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that main reason for filing the present writ petition is that the impugned award dated 28th January, 2021 is itself illegal for want of signatures of all the members of District Level Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council, Ludhiana, constituted in terms with the provision of Section 21 of the Act, 2006. 4. Having heard learned counsel for the parties, this Court is of the view that the said issue may be raised by the petitioner as one of the grounds while assailing the impugned award dated 28th January, 2021 passed by the respondent no. 2 under Section 34 of the Act, 1996. This, however, does not permit the petitioner to bypass the statutory recourse. 5. Hence, this Court is not inclined to entertain the present writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India at this stage, which is otherwise discretionary in nature. 6. The writ petition is, accordingly, dismissed. 7. However, the petitioner is at liberty to take appropriate statutory/alternative recourse against the impugned award dated 28th January, 2021 passed by the respondent no. 2.