Azimah Omar JCA:

A. Introduction

[1] The two Appeals before us primarily concern preliminary issues as to the applicability and the proper interpretation of an Arbitration Clause as well as an Exclusive Jurisdiction Clause as against a third-layer subcontractor who was assigned the rights and terms of a subcontract Agreement which was entered into by 1st and 2nd-layer subcontractors.

[2] In essence, the third and final-layer subcontractor was the contractor who eventually performed the work package for the project and is now claiming for unpaid work allegedly done against the 1st-layer subcontractor via court litigation.

[3] The substance and merit of the claim was not yet determined by the High court. Instead, the parties are now before us in view of the Learned High court Judge's ("Learned Judge") dismissal of the 1st-layer subcontractor's Stay Application to refer the dispute to arbitration under s 10 of the Arbitration Act 2005.

[4] Despite there being two Appeals filed by the respective parties, the two Appeals impugn the sole decision to dismiss the Stay Application (albeit against different portions and points of the same decision).

[5] In any case, it is only apt for us t