The petitioners are the claimants in the Arbitral proceedings. The learned Arbitrator rejected the claim petition of the petitioners herein accepting the preliminary objection taken by respondents-1 to 3 that as per Section 69 of the Indian Partnership Act, an unregistered firm cannot maintain a suit to enforce a right arising under the contract in any Court by or on behalf of any person suing as a partner of the firm. Thus, by award dated 15th October, 2007, under Section 16(1) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, the learned Arbitrator dismissed the claim petition. The learned Arbitrator viewed that the reference to “proceedings” under Section 69(3) of the Indian Partnership Act included arbitration proceedings. Hence, following the decision of the Supreme Court reported in AIR 1964 SC 1882 (Jagdish Chandra Gupta V. Kajaria Traders (India) Ltd.), the claim made by the petitioner was rejected as hit by the provisions of Section 69(3) read with Section 69(2) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 as beyond the jurisdiction of the Arbitrator to decide on the claim of the petitioners.

.2. It is seen that respondents-1 to 3 herein had also made a counter