Vibhu Bakhru, J.

1. Rail Land Development Authority (hereafter ‘RLDA’) has filed the present petition under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereafter ‘the Act’) impugning the arbitral award dated 25.11.2017 (hereafter ‘the impugned award’) delivered by the Arbitral Tribunal (hereafter ‘the Arbitral Tribunal’) constituted by three arbitrators, namely, Sh R.C. Lahoti, (Presiding), Sh S.S. Nijjar and Sh Vikramajit Sen, former Judges of the Supreme Court of India.

2. The impugned award was rendered in the context of disputes that had arisen between the parties in connection with the Development Agreement dated 31.05.2013 (hereafter ‘the Agreement’).

3. There is no dispute that the Agreement was terminated. The only controversy involved in the arbitration proceedings was whether the Agreement stood terminated on account of non-achievement of Financial Close on 15.06.2015 or whether the same was terminated on account of Payment Default on behalf of the Developer.

4. Whilst, the respondents contend that the Agreement was deemed to have been terminated on account of non-achievement of Financial Close, RLDA claims that it had terminated the Agreement with eff