Clause 3

by deleting subsection (1) and substituting the following subsection:“(1) Notwithstanding Article 8 of the Model Law, where any party to an arbitration agreement to which this Act applies institutes any proceedings in any court against any other party to the agreement in respect of any matter which is the subject of the agreement, any party to the agreement may, at any time after appearance and before delivering any pleading or taking any other step in the proceedings, apply to that court to stay the proceedings so far as the proceedings relate to that matter.”;

by inserting, immediately after the word “proceedings” in the 4th line of subsection (2), the words “so far as the proceedings relate to the matter,”; and

by deleting subsection (4) and substituting the following subsections:“(4) Where no party to the proceedings has taken any further step in the proceedings for a period of not less than 2 years after an order staying the proceedings has been made, the court may, on its own motion, make an order discontinuing the proceedings without prejudice to the right of any of the parties to apply for the discontinued proceedings to be reinstated.(5) For the purposes of this section and sections 7 and 11A —

a reference to a party shall include a reference to any person claiming through or under such party;

“court” means the High Court, District Court, Magistrate’s Court or any other court in which proceedings are instituted.”.