Specific Performance and Arbitration

 Apex Court in the case of Olympus Superstructure Pvt. Ltd. v. Meena Vijay Kheta and Ors. reported in MANU/SC/0359/1999 : AIR 1999 (SC) 2102. Para 38 of the judgment reads as under:

In our opinion, the view taken by the Punjab, Bombay and Calcutta High Courts is the correct one and the view taken by the Delhi High Court is not correct. We are of the view that the right to specific performance of an agreement of sale deals with contractual rights and it is certainly open to the parties to agree - with a view to shorten litigation in regular courts - to refer the issue relating to specific performance of arbitration. There is no prohibition in the Specific Relief Act, 1963 that issues relating to specific performance of contract relating to immovable property cannot be referred to arbitration. Nor is there such a prohibition contained in the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 as contrasted with Section 15 of the English Arbitration Act, 1950 or Section 48(5)(b) of the English Arbitrating Act, 1996 which contained a prohibition relating to specific performance of the contracts concerning immovable property.