JUDGMENT :

Moushumi Bhattacharya, J.

1. The petitioner has filed the present application under section 9 of The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 praying, inter alia, for appointment of a Receiver in respect of the asset which was financed by way of a loan given by the petitioner to the respondents. The petitioner also seeks a restraint on the respondents from transferring or disposing of the said asset.

2. The respondents have taken a point of maintainability of the application on 3 grounds. The first of the grounds is that the application is barred under section 42 of The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The second objection is that the application is barred under Order XXIII Rule 1 of The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, which relates to withdrawal of suits. The third objection is that the application has not been filed before the jurisdictional Court in terms of the arbitration agreement between the parties.

3. Learned Counsel for the respondents argues that the learned City Civil Court at Calcutta has the jurisdiction to entertain this application since the first application was made by the petitioner before the learned City Civil Court under section 9 of the 1996 Act. C