In its recent judgment Mittal v Westbridge Ventures, the Singapore Court of Appeal has considered a number of important questions of arbitration law concerning the proper law of arbitration agreements and the identification of the law which determines whether a particular dispute is arbitrable. The case is likely to be of particular interest to Indian practitioners because it illustrates why in...
Challenging Bias in Indian Arbitration: An Illusory Remedy?
[Umang Bhat Nair is a 5th year student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] The Delhi High Court’s decision in Union of India v. Reliance Industries Ltd. (9 December 2022) added to an already long list of cases (for e.g., see here, here and here) holding that section 14 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act [“A&C Act”] cannot be resorted to for challenging an arbitrator’s ruling on...
Enforcement of Security Interest Against Borrower is Non-Arbitrable
[Suradhish Vats is an Associate at OliveLaw] In the recent case of Bell Finvest India Limited v. AU Small Finance Bank Limited, the Delhi High Court had the opportunity to resolve and clarify the position concerning section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (‘A&C Act’) and section 11 of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security...
Data-Protection in the International Arbitration Regime
[Rishav Ray is a 4th year B.A. LL.B. (Hons) student at the School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore] One of the fundamental underlying principles of arbitration is ‘confidentiality’. Confidentiality and privacy act as counterparts in protecting the essence of arbitration. While confidentiality refers to the non-disclosure of materials placed during proceedings and the award...
Time for Indian Courts to Make Way For Emergency Arbitrators?
[Abhisar Vidyarthi is an Associate at AZB & Partners, New Delhi] Over the last decade, emergency arbitration has been increasingly recognised and adopted by most national and international arbitral institutions. In India, emergency arbitration received a significant push on 6 August 2021, when the Supreme Court of India (‘Supreme Court’) rendered a monumental decision in Amazon.com Nv...
Cox and Kings Judgment: Revisiting the Group of Companies Doctrine
[Natasha Matange and Dharmvir Brahmbhatt are 4th and 5th year students at Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar] Arbitration has been growing as a method of dispute resolution in recent years both in India and abroad. It is more formal than mediation, yet has certain procedural similarities to litigation. The essence of arbitration is rightly considered to be consent. It is recognised by...
Writ Petitions Not Ordinarily Maintainable against Non-Interim Arbitral Orders
[Anujay Shrivastava is an Advocate (India-qualified) and incoming LLM candidate at the University of Cambridge, and Abhijeet Shrivastava is a final year law student at Jindal Global Law School, India] Recently, a single judge of the Delhi High Court issued an order in Easy Trip Planners Ltd. v. One97 Communications Ltd. (25 July 2022), where it precluded a party from challenging an ‘order’ of an...
Analysing the Effect of the Supreme Court Judgement in Indian Oil Corporation Limited v. NCC Limited
[Dhiraj Abraham Philip is an Advocate-on-Record of the Supreme Court of India and a Partner at the law firm, Dua Associates] The Supreme Court in its judgment dated 20 July 2022 in Indian Oil Corporation Limited v. NCC Limited, held that even after the insertion of sub-section (6-A) in section 11, the scope of inquiry by the Court was not confined to the examination of whether a binding...
Call for Submissions: 7th Gary B. Born Essay Competition on International Arbitration, 2022
[Announcement on behalf of the Centre for Advanced Research and Training in Arbitration Law & Indian Journal of Arbitration Law, National Law University, Jodhpur] Themes: Harmonising principles on joinder and consolidation: necessity or an issue taken too seriously? Reconciling arbitration with insolvency proceedings and corporate restructuring; Third-party funding and disclosures in...
Termination of the Mandate of the Arbitrator appointed by Mutual Consent
[Megha Shaw is an Incoming Associate at S&A Law Offices and Ashish Kumar is a fourth year student at NMIMS, Bangalore] In the recent case of Swadesh Kumar Agarwal v Dinesh Kumar Agarwal, the Supreme Court of India (“SC”) has explained the scope of section 11(6) vis-à-vis section 14(1)(a) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“Act”). Section 14(1)(a) encapsulates the termination of an...
Recent Comments