A and, in particular, Section 2 thereof, Mr. Gupta submitted that some of the sections of the Act would apply to arbitration proceedings even if the seat of arbitration is outside England and Wales or the Northern Islands, or'if no seat is designated or determined, as in the instant case. According to Mr. Gupta, Beven though the present Arbitration Agreement was to be governed by the Laws of England and Wales, according to the choice of the parties to the Memorandum, the Venue for holding the arbitration did not have to be situated within the jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales. Mr. Gupta urged that an calmost identical situation had ariseninthe caseofBhatia International (supra), where an application made by the respondent therein to the Third Additional District Judge, Indore, M.P., was under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, for grant of certain interim reliefs to restrain the Dparties from alienating, transferring and creating third party rights, disposing of, dealing with and/or selling their business assets and properties till the matter was decided by the Court. Bhatia International raised a plea as to the maintainability of the said application which was dismissed by the learned Additional District Judge upon holding that the Court at Indore E had jurisdiction to entertain the application filed by Bulk Trading S.A. under Section 9 of the above Act and that the s·ame was maintainable.
