In Brief
Dani Wooltex owned land in Mumbai; Sheil (a real estate developer) and Marico (a consumer goods company) each filed separate claims in arbitration against Dani. After Marico's arbitration concluded in May 2017, the Arbitrator terminated Sheil's pending claim in December 2020, finding Sheil had abandoned it because Sheil did not request hearing dates and did not challenge Marico's award. The High Court set aside this termination. The Supreme Court held that an Arbitrator cannot infer abandonment merely from a claimant's failure to request hearing dates or to challenge a co-respondent's award. Abandonment requires express or very convincing conduct. The Arbitrator has a duty to fix meeting and hearing dates independently. Since Sheil regularly attended Marico's hearings and had filed its own statement of claim, there was no abandonment. The appeal was dismissed and the parties were directed to appoint a substitute Arbitrator.
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