The Supreme Court has appointed former Supreme Court judge Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia as the substitute sole arbitrator to continue the arbitration between DMI Finance Pvt. Ltd. and RCC Infraventures Ltd., after former Supreme Court judge Justice Ajay Rastogi, who had earlier been appointed to take over the proceedings, recused himself.
Justice Rastogi had been appointed as the substitute sole arbitrator after Justice R. Banumathi (Retd.) recused herself from the arbitration following a controversy concerning the cross-examination of a witness. The Supreme Court had then directed Justice Rastogi to continue the proceedings from the stage at which Justice Banumathi had stepped aside.
However, Justice Ajay Rastogi subsequently recused himself from the arbitration after it came to light that his son-in-law had appeared for the respondents in a connected matter against DMI Finance, the same petitioner in the present dispute.
The controversy arose when a witness allegedly left the arbitral proceedings midway through cross-examination without signing his recorded deposition and subsequently disputed its contents. During the earlier proceedings, Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for DMI Finance, had argued that a witness could not simply disown a statement recorded during cross-examination by refusing to sign it and walking away.
The Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana had, however, left questions concerning the evidentiary value of the unsigned deposition and any possible action against the witness to the substitute arbitrator.
With Justice Rastogi now having recused himself, the Supreme Court, on the mentioning of Senior Advocate Geeta Luthra, has appointed Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia as the new substitute sole arbitrator, allowing the arbitration to proceed from the stage at which it was interrupted.