JUDGMENT

Ravi Krishan Kapur, J. - This is an application under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 ('the Act').

2. The disputes by and between the parties arise out of a tender published by the respondent. Pursuant to the tender, the petitioner submitted its bid. Thereafter, the respondent issued a purchase order on the petitioner. On 4 August, 2021, the respondent issued a termination notice and threatened the petitioner to recover the security deposit from the dues payable to the petitioner by the Railways or any other Zonal Railways. In this application, the petitioner assails the notice dated 4 August, 2021.

3. A preliminary point has been raised by the respondent that this Court has no jurisdiction to entertain this application.

4. It is submitted on behalf of the respondent that in terms of Clause 17 of Section G of the tender document, and also the letter of acceptance dated 25 January 2021, there is an exclusive jurisdiction clause in the agreement. For the sake of convenience, Clause 17.1 provides as follows:-

17.1 Court Jurisdiction:

For any disputes related to contract or inspection/action by RDSO in pursuance of General Guidelines for Vendor Approval, the