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18. Mr. K.K. Venugopal, learned senior counsel appearing for the appellant submitted that the Division Bench of this Court, while coming to the aforesaid finding, has not noticed the relevant provision of the M.P. Act as well as the relevant provisions of A.C. Act 1996 and as such the same judgment was rendered `per incuriam'.

19. Learned senior counsel further submitted that another Division Bench of this Court in a case in which the Presiding Judge was common with the Bench which rendered the Va Tech (supra) ruling almost in a situation identical with Va Tech issued notice and stayed the arbitration proceedings.

31. This was the only point argued before us by the learned counsel for the appellant.

32. The principle of per incuriam has been very succinctly formulated by the Court of Appeal in Young vs. Bristol Aeroplane Company, Limited reported in 1944 (1) K.B. 718.

33. Lord Greene, Master of Rolls formulated the principles on the basis of which a decision can be said to have been rendered `per incuriam'. The principles are:

(page 406)

38. In the case of State of U.P. and another vs. Synthetics and Chemicals Ltd. and another reported in (1991) 4 SCC 139, this Court held the doctrine of `per incuriam' in practice means `per ignoratium' and noted that English Courts have developed this principle in relaxation of the rule of stare decisis and referred to the decision in the case of Bristol Aeroplane Co. Ltd. (supra). The learned Judges also made it clear that the same principle has been approved and adopted by this Court while interpreting Article 141 of the Constitution (see para 41).

39. In the case of Municipal Corporation of Delhi vs. Gurnam Kaur reported in (1989) 1 SCC 101, a three-

Judge Bench of this Court explained this principle of per incuriam very elaborately in paragraph 11 at page 110 of the report and in explaining the principle of per incuriam the learned Judges held:

"......A decision should be treated as given per incuriam when it is given in ignorance of the terms of a statute or of a rule having the force of a statute......."