T.S.Thakur, J.

1. Construction of a Railway Over Bridge at level crossing No. 32-B Kurali on Sirhind Nangal Dam Section of Northern Railway Crossing, Chandigarh Ropar Road (National Highway-21) was advertised for inviting tenders from eligible Contractors way back in the year 1998. The petitioner- Company also responded and emerged as the lowest bidder resulting in the issue of a letter of allotment in its favour on 19.11.2003. It is not in dispute that a formal agreement was executed between the parties, which inter alia provided for settlement of disputes and differences between the parties by way of Arbitration. Condition No. 8 of the general conditions of the contract insofar as it is relevant for our purposes may be extracted at this stage --

"8. I In case of any dispute arising at anytime between any of the parties to the contract, the same shall be settled under the provisions of Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. Such dispute shall be referred to arbitration consisting a panel of 3 arbitrators out of which one will be appointed by GOP, one by the Entrepreneur and the third by GOI who will act as Presiding Officer of the Arbitral Tribunal. Majority decision shal