ORDER :

1. The petitioner-defendant No.1 is at the doors of this Court calling in question rejection of an application filed under Order VII Rule 10 of the CPC filed seeking return of the plaint to a Court having jurisdiction.

2. Heard Sri Pankaj Bhagath, learned counsel appearing for petitioner and Sri Manu P. Kulkarni, learned counsel appearing for caveator/respondents 1 and 2.

3. Facts in brief, germane, as follows:

3.1 Before embarking upon consideration of the issue in the lis, I deem it appropriate to notice the protagonists in the lis. The petitioner is the defendant No.1, a partner and authorized signatory of respondent No.3/Company – Flash Cloud Consulting – defendant No.2, a partnership firm engaged in the business of sale and distribution of software. The 1^st respondent is the plaintiff- Array Networks India Pvt. Ltd. (‘Array India’ for short) which is the Indian entity of Array Networks Inc. (‘Array, USA’ for short). Respondent No.2 - the plaintiff No.2 is an employee and Director of Array India, the plaintiff No.1.

3.2. On 03-09-2019, Array, USA enters into a distribution agreement with 3^rd respondent/Flash Cloud Consulting for distribution and reselling of software product