In Brief
TRF Ltd purchased equipment from Energo Engineering Projects Ltd under a contract with an arbitration clause naming the buyer's Managing Director as the sole arbitrator. When disputes arose, the Managing Director nominated a retired judge. TRF challenged this, arguing that post-2015 amendments made the Managing Director statutorily ineligible under the Arbitration Act's disqualification provisions, and therefore he could not nominate another arbitrator. The High Court upheld the nomination. The Supreme Court held that once a person becomes statutorily ineligible to act as an arbitrator, they lose the power to nominate a replacement—the nominative authority collapses with the disqualification. The Court set aside the High Court's appointment order and remitted the matter for fresh consideration, observing that the arbitration clause survived independently and could be administered anew by court appointment.
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