JUDGMENT :

1. The petitioner, Lindsay International, seeks setting aside of an order dated 24th August, 2019 by which the petitioner’s applications under section 16 of The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, were dismissed. Lindsay names the order as an ‘Award’/‘Interim Award’ and has hence filed the present applications under section 34 of the Act for setting it aside.

2. Section 16 empowers the arbitral tribunal to rule on its own jurisdiction including on an objection with regard to the existence or validity of the arbitration agreement.

3. The respondent IFGL Refractories takes a preliminary point of maintainability that the impugned order is not an award and is hence not amenable to the recourse provided under section 34 of the 1996 Act.

4. The first question which is required to be decided is whether the impugned order dated 24th August, 2019 - described as a “Partial Award” - qualifies as an award falling within the parameters of the Act. The petitioner claims the impugned order to be an interim arbitral award within the meaning of section 31(6) of the Act. The respondent contends otherwise; namely that the impugned decision is not an interim award and hence the present appl