(1.) The petitioners have filed the present petition under Sec. 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereinafter the 'Act'), inter alia, praying as under:
(2.) At the outset, the respondents have taken a preliminary objection as to the maintainability of the present petition. The respondents contend that the present petition under Sec. 9 of the Act is not maintainable principally on the ground that Part-I of the Act is inapplicable to arbitral proceedings held outside India - in this case Singapore - and the parties have impliedly agreed to exclude the applicability of Sec. 9 of the Act. The respondents also contend that the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015 (hereafter 'the Amendment Act') is inapplicable to the present proceedings as the arbitral proceedings had commenced prior to 23.10.2015. The petitioners contend otherwise.
(3.) At this stage, the limited controversy that arises for consideration is whether the petition filed by the petitioners is maintainable.