ORDER: It is an application to vacate the interim stay granted in Application No.2925 of 2002 in O.P. No.507 of 2002. The O.P. has been filed to declare the appointment of the second respondent as an arbitrator as arbitrary-and also to remove the present arbitrator and to appoint a retired judge of the High Court to act as an arbitrator.

2. The petitioner in his affidavit has stated that the first petitioner has entered into a lease agreement on 17.3.1994 with the first respondent branch office at Pondicherry for the lease of 1994 Standford Eder Hyudraulic Excavator with Ashok Leyland, ALU, 411 engine and all other implements and to purchase a machinery for a sum of Rs.53,76,000. Thereafter at the instance of the first petitioner, the lease agreement was converted into a Hire Purchase Agreement dated 31.12.1998. There was some default in payment of the amount. Due to the alleged default committed by the first petitioner, the first respondent issued a legal notice on 22.9.2001. In the meantime, he invoked the Arbitration Clause in the Hire Purchase Agreement and appointed the second respondent as the sole Arbitrator. Thereafter, the second respondent sent a notice to the first petiti

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