A are of public nature & Ors. v. Bajranglal Agarwal & Anr. (2012) 5 SCC 214; SBP & . Co & Ors.

A are of public nature, etc. are not capable of adjudication and settlement by arbitration and for resolution of such disputes, Courts, i.e. public fora are better suited than a private forum of arbitration. Therefore, the inquiry of the Court, while dealing with an application under Section 8 of the Act, should be on the aforesaid aspect, viz. whether the nature of dispute is such that it cannot be referred to arbitration, even if there is an arbitration agreement between the parties. When the case of fraud is set up by one of the parties and on that basis that party wants to wriggle out of that arbitration agreement, a strict and meticulous inquiry into the allegations of fraud is needed and only when the Court is satisfied that the allegations are of serious and complicated nature that it would be more appropriate for the Court to deal with the subject matter rather than relegating the parties to arbitration, then alone such an application under Section 8 s~ould be rejected. [Para 20) [542-C-F) c

In the present case, the only allegation of fraud that is levelled is that the appellant had signed and issued a cheque of Rs. 10,00,050/- dated 17.06.2010 of the hotel in favour of his son without the knowledge and consent of the other partners of the hotel i.e. the respondents . .It is a mere matter of accounts which can be looked into and found out even by the arbitrator. It does not involve any complex issue. If such a cheque is issued from the hotel accpunt by the appellant in favour of his son, it is. easy to prove the same and then the onus is upon the appellant to show as to what was the reason for giving that amount from the partnership firm to his son and he will have to account for the same. Likewise, the allegation of the respondents that daily collections were not deposited in the bank accounts is to be proved by the respondents which is again a matter of accounts. Other allegation, which appears to be serious, is about the C.B.I. raid at the house of brother-in-law of the appellant, from where cash in the sum of Rs.45 lakhs was seized. The respondents have themselves alleged that the money did not belong to the hotel. In view of the aforesaid stand taken by the respondents/plaintiffs themselves, this issue does not fall for consideration and, therefore, is not to be gone into by the Arbitral Tribunal. Thus, the allegations of purported fraud D E F G H A. AYYASAMYv. A. PARAMASIVAM & ORS. 525 were not so serious which cannot be taken care of by the arbitrator. The Courts below, therefore, fell in error in rejecting the application of the appellant under Section 8 of the Act. [Paras 21 and 22] [542-G-H; 543-A-D]