JUDGMENT :

VIBHU BAKHRU, J

1. The petitioner (hereafter ‘BPRL’) has filed the present petition under Section 11(6) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereafter ‘the A&C Act’), inter alia, praying that the nominee arbitrator be appointed on behalf of the respondent, to enable constitution of an Arbitral Tribunal for adjudication of the disputes that have arisen between the parties in relation to the Joint Operating Agreement dated 05.04.2013 (hereafter ‘the Agreement’).

2. BPRL, GAIL (India) Limited, Engineers India Limited, BF Infrastructure Limited and the respondent (then known as Monnet Ispat and Energy Limited) had entered into a Production Sharing Contract dated 30.08.2012 (hereafter the ‘PSC’) with the Government of India in respect of the Contract Area identified as Block: CB-ONN-2010/8.

3. Thereafter, the members of the consortium [BPRL, GAIL (India) Limited, Engineers India Limited, BF Infrastructure and the respondent] entered into the Agreement for carrying out joint operations under the PSC. BPRL and GAIL (India) Limited were jointly designated as Operators with BPRL being accepted as the Lead Operator to carry out the joint operations pursuant to the Agreement.