1. This Application is filed under Section 9 (ii) (a), (b), (c) and (e) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act stating that the Applicant-Company has entered into a lease agreement dated 8.9.1993 with the respondent-company with respect to equipment. The said lease agreement dated 8.9.1993 was assigned under the deed of assignment dated 30.7.1998 to M/s TVS Lakshmi Credit Limited. To the said agreement the respondent is also a signatory and thereby they agreed that the original agreement dated 8.9.1993 would hold good and continue to be in the hands of the assignee, M/s TVS Lakshmi Credit Limited. By an order dated 31.7.1999 in C.P.Nos.141 and 142 of 1999, M/s TVS Lakshmi Credit Ltd., was amalgamated with the Applicant's Company. Referring to Clause 31 which provides that all disputes, differences and claims and questions have to be resolved by referring the same to the Arbitrator, it is stated that they have referred the dispute to the Arbitrator. It is also stated that the respondent-company was declared as a sick company by the B.I.F.R. On the basis of these averments, the Applicant has come forward with this Application to appoint an Advocate-Commissioner to seize with the police protection and sell the equipments subject to the matter of the lease agreement dated 8.9.1993 and adjust the proceeds thereof to the outstanding of the respondent.

2. Though the respondent filed a counter and the learned counsel submitted that the agreement does not provide to appoint sole arbitrator, the fact remains, he admits the existence of a clause to appoint an Arbitrator in the agreement.

3. On the basis of the above facts, now I have to decide the scope of Section 9 so as to sustain the Application for appointment of a Commissioner to re-possess the equipment supplied to the respondent on lease basis and sell the same by the Commissioner.

4. In this case, no independent agreement was entered into with respect to arbitration. "Arbitration agreement" is defined in Section 2(b) to mean an agreement referred to in Section 7. Section 7 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 hereinafter called “the Act” deals with arbitration agreement which reads as follows:

"7. Arbitration Agreement:

(1) In this Part, "Arbitration agreement" means an agreement by the parties to submit to arbitration all or certain disputes which have arisen or which may arise between them in respect of a defined legal relationship, whether contractual or not.

(2) An arbitration agreement may be in the form of an arbitration clause in a contract or in the form of a separate agreement.

(3) An arbitration agreement shall be in writing.

(4) An arbitration agreement is in writing if it is contained in-

(a) a document signed by the parties;

(b) an exchange of letters, telex, telegrams or other means of telecommunication which provide a record of the agreement; or

(c) an exchange of statements of claim and defence in which the existence of the agreement is alleged by one party and not denied by the other.

(5) The reference in a contract to a document containing an arbitration clause constitutes an arbitration agreement if the contract is in writing and the reference is such as to make that arbitration clause part of the contract."

5. Since Section 7 of the Act enables the parties to have an arbitration clause in a contract, the Applicant has complied with the said requirement and in view of the said clause in the lease agreement, it has to be taken that the parties have agreed that if disputes arise between them in respect of the subject matter of the contract, such a dispute shall be referred to the arbitrator.

6. If any dispute arises between the parties with reference to the subject matter of an arbitration agreement, any one of the parties can approach the Court under Section 9 of the Act to get interim measures either before or during arbitral award, but before it is enforced in accordance with Section 36 of the Act. Such a procedure is contemplated