JUDGMENT :

J.B.PARDIWALA, J.

1. This appeal under Section 50 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (for short, “the Act, 1996”) is at the instance of the original defendant No.1 and is directed against the order passed by the Small Cause Court (Commercial Court), Surat, dated 4th February 2020 below Exhibit : 24 in the Commercial Civil Suit No.14 of 2019 instituted by the respondents Nos.1 to 13 respectively (original plaintiffs), by which the application Exhibit : 24 filed by the appellant herein, under Section 45 of the Act, 1996 to refer the parties to arbitration, came to be rejected.

2. The facts giving rise to this appeal may be summarised as under:

3. For the sake of convenience, the parties before us shall be referred to as the plaintiffs and defendant.

4. All the plaintiffs are partnership firms engaged in the business of Diamond manufacturing. The plaintiffs entered into various agreements for the purchase of Scanning Machines such as the Solaris 100 Machine, Galaxy LR Hardware, Galaxy 1000 Machines, etc. The plaintiffs also entered into various agreements for the purchase of Planning Machines with the defendant herein.

5. The purchased machines are embedded and integra