The Company Law Board (CLB) has referred the unfolding dispute between former partners, Norwegian telecom firm Telenor and India's Unitech, to arbitration on Thursday.

CLB forwarded the dispute over management control and transfer of assets of their joint venture, Uninor to arbitration as per the request of Unitech, which wanted the case to be moved to an arbitration panel.

Telenor's legal representatives had indicated said that they will oppose Unitech's petition to move the case to an arbitration panel. However, the CLB dismissed plea of Telenor opposing arbitration in the dispute. Telenor had earlier approached the Company Law Board in India to bar its Indian partner, Unitech from obstructing its plans to operate its operations in India through a new arrangement.

Earlier reports had indicated that Telenor might claim cost of losing Indian telecom licenses from Unitech. Telenor and Unitech jointly operate the Uninor brand in India through a joint venture. The joint venture between the two is one of the firms that will see its license being cancelled. The two companies have decided to end the venture after the Supreme Court of India announced its decision to cancel 122 telecom licenses in the country.

Unitech has said Telenor cannot end the joint venture agreement on its own and said that it has a right to block any transfer of assets. The Company Law Board had recently asked Unitech to make its position clear on whether it wants to acquire Telenor's stake in the joint venture or sell its own stake to Telenor.