ORDER

The appellants and the respondents are the members of the joint family. It appears that certain disputes arose and as a result of which they entered into an agreement to refer the dispute to the Arbitral Tribunal for deciding the partition of the Joint Hindu properties. Although the agreement postulated the Arbitral Tribunal of five persons, it is not disputed that there were only four persons who comprised the Tribunal. The Tribunal gave an Award on 31st May, 1998, which was subsequently corrected on 10th June, 1998 by a clarification order. The respondents herein, who appears to have not satisfied with the Award, filed two petitions under Section 34(1) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereinafter referred to as the Act ) for setting aside the Award, inter alia, on the following grounds :

(1) That the composition of arbitral tribunal was not proper and it is not in accordance with the provisions of Section 10 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, and, therefore, the award is without jurisdiction and invalid;

(2) That the respondents were not given proper notice of arbitral proceedings and opportunity to represent their cas