Judgment :

Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, J.

1. The present appeal has been preferred against an order dated September 10, 2025, passed by a learned Single Judge of this Court in AP-COM 726 of 2025, an application filed by the appellants under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereinafter referred to as the “1996 Act”). By the impugned order, the learned Single Judge refused to grant ad interim protection as sought by the appellants on the ground that such protection cannot be granted without permitting the respondents to disclose their stand on affidavit “for lack of prima facie case and absence of balance of convenience”.

2. The brief backdrop of the case is that the appellants (for short, the “ASA Group”) and the respondents (for short, the “EPI Group”) had entered into certain transactions on the basis of the terms and conditions recorded in the minutes of a meeting held between them on November 15, 2015, and an agreement dated October 11, 2018, signed by the appellant no. 1, Alok Saraf on behalf of the ASA Group, and one Vijay Agarwal, on behalf of the EPI Group.

3. Disputes having arisen between said two Groups relating to such transactions, those were sought to