By this order I shall dispose of this application/petition under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, made by the petitioner against the three respondents. The petitioner had entered into a Joint Venture Agreement (in short 'JVA') with respondent no. 2 on 20th December, 1988. The relevant clauses of the agreement read as under :

DEFINITIONS

1.1 The term "PRODUCTS" as used in the joint venture agreement means the products which are shown on the attached Annex 'A' and which UFS plans to manufacture and sell.

5. NON-COMPETITION WITH THE BUSINESS OF UFS

During the term of this agreement each of the parties hereto agrees not to manufacture, have manufactured or sell, have sold, in India any types of products which are the same as the PRODUCTS for which MIC gives technical know-how to UFS under the collaboration agreements. This obligation is binding on subsidiaries, affiliated companies and holding companies of both parties.

9.0 CONFIDENTIALITY

Each party hereto agrees to keep strictly confidential information acquired from the other parties or from UFS under this agreement. Both parties also agree not to disclose such information to any third party.

Such secrecy