1. The above captioned petition has been filed for enforcement of the Settlement Agreement dated 03.06.2016 (hereafter ‘the Settlement Agreement’). It is the petitioners’ case that the Settlement Agreement has been arrived at pursuant to conciliation proceedings under Sections 73/74 under Part III of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereafter 'the Act') and therefore, is enforceable as an arbitral award.

2. The respondents seek to challenge the maintainability of the present petition essentially on the ground that the Settlement Agreement is not an agreement under Section 73 of the Act or as a result of conciliation proceedings under Part III of the Act. Without prejudice to the same, the respondents further assert that they had not received the authenticated copy of the Settlement Agreement and, therefore, the limitation period to assail the same under Section 34 of the Act has not expired; consequently the present petition is pre-mature. It is also contended that the Settlement Agreement is insufficiently stamped.

3. The Settlement Agreement was entered into in the context of the disputes that had arisen between the parties in connection with an Investment Agreeme