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Judgment
Sudhanshu Dhulia, J.
This writ petition has been filed by the petitioner before this Court with a prayer that since the term of the Arbitrator (D. Santhil Pandiyan), who was appointed by this Court in Arbitration Petition No.18 of 2017 vide order dated 29.06.2017, has already expired and therefore his term may be extended.
However, such a time period can only be extended by a "Court" defined under Section 2(e) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. Section 2(e) reads as under:-
"2.(e) "Court" means-
(i) in the case of an arbitration other than international commercial arbitration, the principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction in a district, and includes the High Court in exercise of its ordinary original civil jurisdiction, having jurisdiction to decide the questions forming the subject-matter of the arbitration if the same had been the subject-matter of a suit, but does not include any Civil Court of a grade inferior to such principal Civil Court, or any Court of Small Causes;
(ii) in the case of international commercial arbitration, the High Court in exercise of its ordinary original civil jurisdiction, having jurisdiction to decide the questions forming the subject-matter of the arbitration if the same had been the subject-matter of a suit, and in other cases, a High Court having jurisdiction to hear appeals from decrees of courts subordinate to that High Court;"
The appropriate Court, in this case, would be the Court of Principal Civil Court having the original jurisdiction at Dehradun and not the High Court.
In view of the above, the writ petition fails and it is hereby dismissed.