Supreme Court appoints retired Justice K Ravichandrabaabu as arbitrator in dispute involving India's first walkthrough aquarium

The Supreme Court on Friday appointed Justice K Ravichandrabaabu, former judge of the Madras High Court, as an arbitrator to resolve the dispute between the firm running India's first walkthrough aquarium and a New Zealand based company [VGP Marine Kingdom Pvt Ltd & Anr vs Kay Ellen Arnold].."Justice K Ravichandrabaabu, former Judge, Madras High Court is hereby appointed as an Arbitrator to resolve the dispute between the parties arising out of the Share Subscription and Shareholders Agreement dated April 27, 2016," ordered the bench of Justices MR Shah and Krishna Murari while setting aside an order of the Madras High Court order in this regard.The issue with respect to the arbitrability of the dispute is left to be decided by the arbitrator, the Court added. The fees of the arbitrator will be decided by the arbitrator with the cosent of the parties as per the schedule of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act of 1996, the Court clarified..The Madras High Court had on August 5, 2021 refused to appoint an arbitrator, on the ground that some proceedings of mismanagement and oppression against the petitioner company were pending before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).The Supreme Court, however, said that the same cannot be a ground to dismiss an application under Section 11(6) regarding appointment of arbitrator. "As far as the fact that the proceedings at the instance of the respondent as minority shareholder for oppression and mismanagement is pending before the NCLT is concerned, on the pendency of such proceedings the application under Section 11(6) of the Act, 1996 cannot be dismissed. It should be left to the arbitrator to consider the entire aspect," the bench observed.The dispute in the instant case, the bench said was with respect to the share subscription and shareholders agreement signed between the parties, which was altogether different from the allegations of mismanagement and oppression at the instance of minority shareholder initiated by the respondent firm.."Considering the fact that share subscription and shareholders agreement dated April 27, 2016 entered into between the parties contains the arbitration clause in case of dispute between the parties arising out of the said agreement, we are of the opinion that the High Court ought to have allowed the application under Section 11(6) of the Act and ought to have left the issue on arbitrability of dispute between the parties to the arbitrator," the bench observed.With these observations, the bench disposed of the petition..Senior Advocate KV Viswanathan appeared for the Petitioner..[Read Order]