Ahmedabad Police has nabbed a man who reportedly appointed himself as an arbitrator, conducted proceedings and passed arbitral awards in favour of one party in land disputes since 2019.
Morris Samuel Christian has been arrested for cheating and other offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
A first information report (FIR) was lodged against Christian at Karanj Police Station in Ahmedabad, after Hardik Desai, Registrar of the City Civil Court in Bhadra, filed a complaint against him.
In his complaint, Desai alleged that Christian posed as an arbitrator in a land dispute case and passed an order against a collector.
"In the said execution proceeding it came to knowledge of Hon’ble Judge and Government pleader that he (Christian) himself gets appointed as arbitrator, passes fabricated arbitration award without any authority and filed execution petition for such award," said Desai.
The complaint also alleges that in the said case, there was no arbitration agreement between the collector/State government and the applicant in the first place.
"No court ordered his appointment as an arbitrator. He invited the applicant himself and got appointed as an arbitrator," the complaint stated.
As per the FIR, Christian committed such fraudulent activity with a motive to falsely take over the possession of a government-owned land.
He is alleged to have been fraudulently operating under the guise of an arbitrator for five-and-a-half years in Ahmedabad.
Deccan Herald reports that the complaint against Christian and his subsequent arrest came on the directions of the City Civil Court and Sessions Court judge JL Chovatia, while he was passing the order on a civil suit filed by a one Babuji Thakore who claimed his right to government land in Paldi area of Gujarat.
During the proceedings, Thakore produced a certificate awarded to him by Christian under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, in 2019, by which Thakore claimed to be the rightful owner of the said government land.
In June 2023, Morris had been cautioned by the Gujarat High Court in a plea filed by Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation Limited seeking to quash another arbitral award passed by him without any authorisation.
Justice Sangeeta Vishen allowed the plea and held :
"Let the respondent no.1, (Morris Christian) not befool the innocent people, invite them for conducting the arbitration proceedings and require parties to participate without any agreement between the parties appointing him as an arbitrator, and pass award without any authority. While concluding, let me place on record a word of caution to the respondent no.1 that, he shall not further indulge into the act of impersonating himself as an arbitrator and conduct arbitration proceedings at his whims and fancies."