JUDGMENT

G.S. Patel, J. - The Petitioner ("Kalpataru") is a real estate development company. The sole Respondent ("the Society") is a cooperative society of apartment owners.

2. Kalpatarus application is under Section 9 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996. It seeks interim relief pending arbitration. The primary relief is to restrain the Society from acting on its termination letter dated 18th May 2021. By this, the Society claims it terminated a Letter of Intent or LoI dated 18th May 2019 for the re-development of the Societys at the Juhu Vile Parle Development Scheme or JVPDS.

3. The issue on which the parties are at loggerheads is as narrow as it is not easy. Indeed, some weeks after I first reserved judgment, I placed the matter again for further hearing on specific questions that I put to both sides (in writing). They took a little time to consider these and then addressed me briefly. They also put in written submissions. Oddly enough, at the hearing both sides relied on one particular authority but with diametrically opposite interpretations, only adding to the difficulty.

4. Given the manner in which the case unfolded before me, I believe it is both appropriate and neces