arbitation judgement

ACE PIPELINE CONTRACTS PRIVATE LIMITED v. BHARAT PETROLEUM CORPN. LIMITED [JT 2007(5) SC 106]

In the present case, in fact the appellant’s demand was to get some retired Judge of the Supreme Court to be appointed as arbitrator on the ground that if any person nominated in the arbitration clause is appointed, then it may suffer from bias or the arbitrator may not be impartial or independent in taking decision. The Court held that Once a party has entered into an agreement with eyes wide open it cannot wriggle out of the situation that if any person of the respondent BPCL is appointed as arbitrator he will not be  impartial or objective. However if the appellant feels that the arbitrator has not acted independently or impartially, or he has suffered from any bias, it will always be open to the party to make an application under Section 34 of the Act to set aside the award on the ground that arbitrator acted with bias or malice in law or fact. For these reason the appeal was dismissed.