1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION ARBITRATION PETITION NO.447 OF 2009 WITH NMS/3923/2009 Saeed Ahmed s/o. Fida Hussain Ansari ...Petitioner. Vs. Bobby Dry Fruits & ors. ...Respondents. Mr.P.M.Shah i/b Mr.Dharmesh Jain for the Petitioner. Ms. Shweta Dwivedi i/b. Pandey & Co. for Respondent no.2. CORAM :- ANOOP V. MOHTA, J. DATED :- 26th February, 2010. P.C.- 1 This is a Petition under Section 9 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996 (for short, the Act), based upon the Deed of Partnership between the parties. This Court, after considering the merits, at prima facie stage, had granted prayer (d) of the petition by order dated 07-08-2009. As none appeared for the respondent at that time, the Court had also admitted this Petition. 2 The learned counsel for the respondent no.2 appeared and filed their reply. Respondent no.2 is only contesting partner. Other partners are supporting the petitioner. 3 The above Notice of Motion is taken out by respondent no.2 for 2 sending the Partnership Deed itself to the handwriting expert for verification of the signature. 4 The submission is also that there is no existence of any agreement/arbitration clause. Therefore, there is no question of passing any interim order under Section 9 of the Act. This submission itself means that there is existence of document/Partnership Deed/arbitration clause. However, the validity of the same is challenged on the ground of forgery. This, in my view, is a matter of detail inquiry and trial, but at the same time, it is difficult to accept the case of respondent that there exists no agreement/arbitration clause or Deed of Partnership in question. 5 All these points can be agitated before the Arbitral Tribunal in view of arbitration clause in the Partnership Deed in question. There exists arbitration clause/agreement and there is definitely a dispute between the partners with regard to the same. Therefore, there is arbitration dispute which need to be agitated and decided by the Arbitral Tribunal. 6 The learned counsel for the parties, by consent, appoint Mrs. K. K. Baam (Retired High Court Judge) as an Arbitrator. The parties to take steps accordingly. 7 The interim order already granted by this Court shall continue for six weeks even after constitution of Arbitral Tribunal. The liberty is granted to the parties to apply for appropriate order or relief before the 3 Arbitral Tribunal. All points are kept open for the parties. 8 The Arbitration Petition is accordingly allowed. No costs. 9 The above Notice of Motion is also disposed of accordingly, with liberty. (ANOOP V. MOHTA, J.)