ASHIS KUMAR CHAKRABORTY,J. - (1.) These two appeals under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, as amended by Act 3 of 2016 (in short, "the Act of 1996"), at the instance of the respondent no. 3 in the arbitral proceeding is directed against the orders dated April 24, 2018 and May 19, 2018, respectively passed by the learned Arbitrator in two separate applications filed by the claimant, the respondent no. 1 herein under Section 17 of the Act of 1996. In the appeals, the appellant has also filed the applications, GA No.1236 of 2018 and GA No.1438 of 2018, respectively praying for stay of operation of the respective impugned orders, as well as stay of the arbitral proceeding till the disposal of the appeals.
(2.) Since, both the impugned orders have been passed by the learned Arbitrator against the present appellant, the respondent no. 3 in the arbitral proceeding on the basis of the same agreements between the parties both the appeals and the respective stay applications are taken up by way of analogous hearing.
(3.) The respondent no. 1 herein is the claimant, respondent no. 2 herein is the first respondent and the appellant is the respondent no. 3 in the arbitral proceeding. For the sake of convenience, the parties herein are described by their array in the arbitral proceeding. The genesis of the disputes giving rise to the present appeals lies in the film finance agreement dated October 25, 2016 entered into between the parties dated October 25, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as "the said agreement dated October 25, 2016") under which the claimant granted financial assistance of Rs. 6.50 crore as a loan to the respondent no.1 for production of the film named "SIMRAN". The respondent no. 1 is the producer and the respondent no. 3 is the director of the film "SIMRAN".;