The court dismissed the petition, stating that the Tribunal had the authority to grant interim measures and that the petitioners had failed to demonstrate that the Section 17 remedy was inefficacious.

ORDER

1. This petition under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996^1[The Act^] has been preferred seeking the following reliefs:

"a) Pass an ex-parte ad-interim order/direction thereby restraining the Respondent No.5 from registering the amended and ratified Memorandum of Association of Jamia Hamdard-Respondent No.4, which has been illegally amended to change the legal status of the HIMSR from a constituent institution to a school:

b) Pass an ex-parte ad-interim order/direction to stay the effect of the minutes of meeting of Jamia Hamdard Society dated 24.01.2023 in furtherance of the impugned minutes dated 05.12.2022 till the disposal of the matter by the Ld. Arbitrator:

c) Pass an ex-parte ad-interim order/direction thereby restraining Respondents No. 1-4 from taking any precipitative action(s) in furtherance of the subject dispute pending adjudication by the Ld. Arbitral Tribunal."

2. dmittedly, the instant petition is not the first foray of the petitioners before this Court seeking reliefs in respect of a resolution dated 05 December 2022 passed by the Jamia Hamdard Society^2[JHS] and in terms of which a decision came to be taken for converting the Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences and Research^3[HIMSR] from a `constituent institution' to a `school' of the Jamia Hamdard [deemed University]. For the purposes of rendering a decision on the present petition, the following essential facts may be noticed.

3. The dispute between the heirs and descendants of the Late Hakeem Hafiz Abdul Majeed Sahib came to be resolved in terms of a Family Settlement Deed dated 22 October 2019 and an Amended Family Settlement Deed dated 21 February 2020. Differences appear to have arisen between the parties relating to the implementation of the various stipulations contained in the said Family Settlement Deeds. According to the petitioners, the principal dispute relates to the segregation of HIMSR from the Jamia Hamdard [deemed University], the fourth respondent herein, and its transfer to the Hamdard Education Society^4[HES] as a going concern. It is the case of the petitioners that it was the action of the respondents acting in breach of the aforesaid prescriptions relating to HIMSR as contained in the Family Settlement Deeds that led to the filing of the first petition under Section 9 of the Act which came to be numbered as OMP (I) No. 7/2022. The said petition was finally disposed of by a learned Judge of the Court in terms of an order dated 20 September 2022 with the following directions:

"13. In view of the aforesaid submissions of the parties, the petition is disposed of with the following directions:

a. With the consent of learned counsel for the petitioners and the respondent Nos. 1, 2 and 3, the disputes between them under the FSD are referred to the arbitration of Hon'ble Mr. Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed,, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir [Tel:7042205786]. At Mr. Vasdev's request, at this stage the University is not made a party to the arbitral proceedings. However, it is open to the parties to make an application before the learned arbitrator in this regard, if so advised.

b. It is expected that the parties will cooperate with each other in the spirit of the FSD and the resolution of the University. Although the University is not being referred to the arbitration at this stage, Mr. Vasdev states that the University will facilitate the implementation of the directions given by the learned arbitrator in this regard.

c. With this objective, it is further directed as follows:

i. The computation of the amounts due from the petitioners' group to respondent Nos. 1 to 3 in terms of Clause 25 of the FSD, read with Annexure V thereof, will be placed before the learned arbitrator within two weeks. The parties may seek necessary direction in this regard from the learned arbitrator, including for the amounts to be deposited with him in escrow.

ii. Mr. Vasdev states that the documents required to be issued by