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When advocates try to establish difference between 'Court' & 'court'

In Nandbala Nathala Mayani vs Jaswantrai Chhaganlal Mayani & Ors, advocate appearing on behalf of the judgment debtor submitted that there was a clear distinction in the use of the lower case ‘court’ in Section 36(1) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act (amendment) 2015 as opposed to the capitalised ‘Court’ in sub-sections 2, 3 and in Section 34 of the Act. Section 2(1)(e) contains a definition of only the latter use, i.e., Court with the upper case’C’.

According to him, under the definition of ‘Court’ in Section 2(1)(e), only the high court on its original side had the jurisdiction to hear the present matter.

Rejecting the argument,  the Bombay High Court held that this Act (like many others) is replete with punctuation and other errors and we are best advised to read the statutes for what they intend, and what their objects and purposes are, rather than to interpret for what a punctuation may or may not convey. There is always a time and a place for that level of exactitude. This  is not it.

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