Whether section 8 of Arbitration Act 1996 prevails over SARFAESI Act 2002

Whether section 8 of Arbitration Act 1996 prevails over SARFAESI Act 2002? No. SARFAESI Act being a special enactment would prevail over Arbitration Act. Says Hon'ble SC.
Instant Case: Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd vs M/s. Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited
The Facts and ratio laid down in M.D. Frozen Foods Exports Pvt. Ltd. & Ors. v. Hero Fincorp Ltd. by Hon’ble SC earlier squarely matches the instant case.
Having regard to the aforesaid facts in M.D. Frozen Foods, the Court formulated following three questions which had arisen for consideration:
“A. Whether the arbitration proceedings initiated by the respondent can be carried on along with the SARFAESI proceedings simultaneously?
B. Whether resort can be had to Section 13 of the SARFAESI Act in respect of debts which have arisen out of a loan agreement/mortgage created prior to the application of the SARFAESI Act to the respondent?
C. A linked question to question (ii), whether the lender can invoke the SARFAESI Act provision where its notification as financial institution under Section 2(1) (m) has been issued after the account became an NPA under Section 2(1)(o) of the said Act?”
These questions amply demonstrate that the instant case is virtually on the same footing as M.D. Frozen Foods.
Questions A answered as follows:
18) Insofar as question ‘A’ is concerned, the Court categorically held that merely because remedy under the Arbitration Act was invoked was no ground to debar the respondent from taking recourse to the SARFAESI Act. The discussion from that judgment is reproduced below:
“26. A claim by a bank or a financial institution, before the specified laws came into force, would ordinarily have been filed in the Civil Court having the pecuniary jurisdiction. The setting up of the Debt Recovery Tribunal under the RDDB Act resulted in this specialised Tribunal entertaining such claims by the banks and financial institutions. In fact, suits from the civil jurisdiction were transferred to the Debt Recovery 
Tribunal. The Tribunal was, thus, an alternative to a Civil Court recovery proceedings.
27. On the SARFAESI Act being brought into force seeking to recover debts against security interest, a question was raised whether parallel proceedings could go on under the RDDB Act and the SARFAESI Act. This issue was clearly answered in favour of such simultaneous proceedings in Transcore v. Union of India. A later judgment in Mathew Varghese v. M. Amritha Kumar also discussed this issue in the following terms:
“45. A close reading of Section 37 shows that the provisions of the SARFAESI Act or the Rules framed thereunder will be in addition to the provisions of the RDDB Act. Section 35 of the SARFAESI Act states that the provisions of the SARFAESI Act will have overriding effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent contained in any other law for the time being in force. Therefore, reading Sections 35 and 37 together, it will have to be held that in the event of any of the provisions of the RDDB Act not being inconsistent with the provisions of the SARFAESI Act, the application of both the Acts, namely, the SARFAESI Act and the RDDB Act, would be complementary to each other. In this context, reliance can be placed upon the decision in Transcore v. Union of India [(2008) 1 SCC 125 :
Insofar as questions ‘B’ and ‘C’ are concerned, the Court again referred to the conflicting opinion of different High Courts and after discussion held that the SARFAESI Act was retroactive in nature and, therefore, once this Act came into force, the respondent in the said case had right to invoke the provisions of the Act even if loan agreement was entered into and mortgage created prior to the coming into force the SARFAESI Act.