JUDGMENT :

P.B. Suresh Kumar, J.

1. This appeal under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (the Act) is directed against the order dated 20.10.2020 in O.P. (Arbitration) No.557 of 2015 on the files of the Court of the Third Additional District Judge, Thrissur. The appellants were the petitioners in the said proceedings.

2. There were two partnership firms namely, Moonwalk Polymers and Butterfly Micro Polymers in which the appellants and respondent were partners. The case of the respondent is that he being a person working abroad, the affairs of the firms were being looked after by the appellants; that when the firms could not carry on their business due to paucity of funds, he made advances to the appellants on different occasions commencing from 02.07.2009 totalling to Rs.1.62 crores for the business on an understanding that the appellants will return the same with interest and that he has come to know in course of time that the appellants have practised fraud on him by diverting the amounts given to them for the business of the firms. It is also the case of the respondent that an agreement was arrived at in the said circumstances between the parties on 19.11.2010