The Supreme Court has appointed its former Chief Justice, VN Khare, as arbitrator in the dispute between the Chinese company, Everest Holding Ltd, and its Indian business partners led by the Shrivastava Group. The Indian firms provided cooperation in mining, processing and export of iron ore from their mines.
The Chinese firm complained that its joint venture agreement was cancelled by one of the Indian partnerships over reduction of prices. This started a slew of disputes between the partners and the Chinese firm, and the latter invoked the Arbitration and Conciliation Act for international arbitration.
Arbitration no bar for complaint on cheque
Arbitration of disputes between two companies according to an agreement is not a bar to trial of a criminal case for issuing a dishonoured cheque. The Supreme Court stated so in the order, Sri Krishna Agencies vs State of Andhra Pradesh. In this case, three cheques were issued but the payment was stopped, leading to a criminal complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.
The drawer argued that since the arbitration was going on, the criminal complaint should be quashed. The Andhra Pradesh high court accepted this argument. But on appeal, the Supreme Court let the criminal prosecution to continue.