(1.) Present appeal has been filed by the Appellant under Section 37 (2) (b) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereinafter referred to as Act). Challenge in the appeal is to an interim order dated 12.08.2019 passed by the Learned Arbitrator on an application filed by the Respondent under Section 17 of the Act. By way of the said impugned order, the Arbitrator has directed the Appellant to furnish a Bank Guarantee in favour of the Respondent in the sum of Rs.30 crores from State Bank of India or HDFC Bank, initially valid for a period of six months and to be kept alive thereafter, till the passing of the Award. The Appellant herein is the Respondent before the Arbitrator and the Respondent herein is the Claimant.
(2.) Shorn of unnecessary details, the facts necessary to decide the present appeal are that the Appellant is engaged in the business of provision of applications for telecom companies with its products including Happy Hours and USSD Push Campaign Manager, Pick Pack Interactive pre-call announcement, Loan Advance Solution, etc. Appellant installs the software products on servers of concerned customers i.e. the telecom service providers. Each product contains database software which stores and processes data and the software application reads and processes data from the concerned database.
(3.) Respondent was the CEO of the Appellant. The Genesis of the present dispute lies in the acquisition of the Appellant by Nuance India Private Limited and Nuance Communications Netherland BV (hereinafter referred to as buyers) vide Share Purchase Agreement dated 30.12.2016 (hereinafter referred to as SPA).