JUDGMENT :

Anup Jairam Bhambhani, J.

1. By way of the present appeal under section 37(2)(b) of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act 1996 (‘A&C Act’), the appellants impugn order dated 19.08.2021 made by the learned Sole Arbitrator, declining to allow an application seeking interim measures of protection under section 17 of the A&C Act. The application under section 17 was moved by the non-claimants, who are the appellants in the present appeal, who had sought to secure the amounts comprised in their counter-claims. The principal ground for seeking to secure the amount in dispute in the counter-claims was the alleged ruinous financial position of the claimant, who is the respondent in the present appeal.

2. The transaction that is the genesis of disputes between the parties is the sale by the appellants to the respondent of a business unit called Devi Metal Technologies (DMT) alongwith its assets on a ‘going concern basis’ based upon three principal documents:

i. Balance sheet dated 14.04.2016 of DMT for FY ending 31.03.2016.

ii. Deed of reconstitution dated 15.04.2016, which was to take effect from 01.04.2016; and

iii. Supplementary deed dated 15.04.2016, which carved-out certain exception