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that there was no. concluded contract between the parties.
This plea made it necessary for the respondent to move the
Court for a decision of the question about the; existence
and validity- of the arbitration 'agreement. It, was on
these allegations that the respondent in its petition
claimed 'that it may, be held that there was a concluded
contract between': the parties containing a valid
arbitration agreement. The petition having been made under
s. 28 along with s. 33 the respondent prayed that suitable
extension of time be granted to the Arbitrators for making
the, award. The appellant pleaded in defence that no
concluded contract had been made between the parties and
that there was no jurisdiction: in the Court to grant
extension under s 28. The, other allegations made by the
respondent in its petition were also traversed.
On these pleadings the learned trial judge framed,
appropriate issues. He found that a concluded contract had
been proved, between the parties as alleged by the
respodent. that there was a valid arbitration agreement in
the said contract and that the Court had jurisdiction, to.
try the petition. Incidentally, it may be pointed out at
this stage that no specific point had been raised in the
pleadings of the appellant that, the Court had no
jurisdiction to entertain the petition under s. 33 or. s. 32
of the Act,. In fact the trial judge has observed that it
was not shown to him how the
application was incompetent. Consistently with the findings
recorded by him the learned trial judge declared that there
was a concluded contract between the parties under which the
matter was duly referred to arbitration through an
arbitration agreement clause in the contract. As a result
of the declaration he held that there was a valid reference
to arbitration between the parties. Consequently he granted
a month's time to the arbitrators to make their award.
This decision was challenged by the appellant by its
revision petition preferred in. the High Court of Punjab at
Chandigarh. The High Court has confirmed the finding of the
trial court that there was a concluded contract which
contained an arbitration agreement. The question of
'jurisdiction under s. 33 of the Act was argued before the
High Court and its attention was drawn to the conflict of
judicial decisions on. the point. The High Court, however,
held that since the petition has been filed as a composite
application under ss. 28 and 33 it was open to the Court
under a. 28 to enter upon the question of the existence or
validity of the contract and so there was no substance in
the point of 'jurisdiction raised by the appellant. In the
result the appellant's revision application was dismissed.
It is against this decision that the appellant has come to
this Court by special leave ; and on his behalf Mr. Din
Dayal has raised the same two points for our decision. He
contends that the High Court was in error in holding that
the trial court bad jurisdiction to entertain the
respondent's petition, and he argues that even if the point
of jurisdiction raised by him fails it should be held that
there was no concluded contract between the parties and so.
there was no scop or room for making any reference to
arbitration. The first of these two contentions has been
seriously pressed before us.