Attempts made by Arbitrator to encourage the parties to reach a settlement cannot be termed as a Conciliation proceeding under Part-III of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 – MFAR Constructions Pvt. Ltd. Vs. Bengal Shristi Infrastructure Development Ltd. – Calcutta High Court
Hon’ble Calcutta High Court held that settlement effort by the arbitrator is recognized and encouraged in a civil suit by Section 89 of the Civil Procedure Code read with Order 23 Rule 3 and during arbitration by Section 30 of the Arbitration Act. In fact the arbitrator has described the effort made by him and one for settlement under Section 30. The learned judge in passing the impugned judgment and order has made a complete error in viewing the attempts made by the learned arbitrator to encourage the parties to reach a settlement as a conciliation proceeding under Part-III of Arbitration Act.