SANJIB BANERJEE, J.

1. THE preliminary objection raised by the respondent, a commercial arm of the Canadian government, as to the authority of any Indian court to receive a challenge to an arbitral award passed in a reference conducted beyond the territorial limits of this country, brings to the fore a vexed issue that appears to have been variously answered by courts in the country.

2. FOR the purpose of the point of demurer it is only necessary to recognise some admitted facts. The parties entered into an agreement sometime in the year 1989 for the respondent to set up a coal extracting facility for the petitioner in the Rajmahal area in the state of Jharkhand. The parties are agreed that the agreement was to be governed by the laws in force in India; that the dispute- resolution mechanism envisaged thereunder was of arbitration; and, that the arbitration was to take place under the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) with the place of the arbitration in Geneva, Switzerland. Upon disputes arising between the parties as to whether the petitioner was entitled to more money by way of penalty than the respondent was to get bonus, the petitioner sought a refere