MSME Council Justified In Proceeding To Arbitration Without Fresh Notice When Party Skips Conciliation: Madhya Pradesh HC

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has held that where a party, despite being granted an opportunity, fails to file a reply and declines to participate in conciliation proceedings, the MSME Facilitation Council is justified in proceeding to arbitration without issuing a separate notice. A Division Bench of Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Pradeep Mittal observed, “Once the petitioner had declared that he was interested in participating in the conciliation proceedings, the Facilitation Council had no...

Bombay High Court Sets Aside Awards Against Stock Broker For Ignoring Claimant's Statements

The Bombay High Court recently set aside concurrent arbitral awards, holding that ignoring vital evidence, including the claimant's own statements, rendered the findings perverse.Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan heard a petition by Kantilal Chhaganlal Securities Pvt Ltd. The firm had challenged an arbitral award dated October 23, 2013 and an appellate award dated April 8, 2014 in favour of its client. Setting aside the awards, the court said: “That vital evidence that cuts to the root of the...

Refusal To Produce Audited Financials Justifies Adverse Inference: Bombay High Court Upholds Arbitral Award

The Bombay High Court has recently refused to interfere with an arbitral award, holding that refusal by a party to produce audited financial statements justifies the drawing of an adverse inference by the arbitral tribunal. The court remarked that a party cannot selectively rely on tax returns while withholding audited financial statements and books of account. A bench of Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan observed: “As such, every business enterprise would have both sets of financial information...

Mere Filing Of One Plea Before A Court Doesn't Confer Jurisdiction For Subsequent Arbitration Pleas: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court has held that merely filing a petition before a particular court cannot fix jurisdiction under Section 42 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, especially where the petition is withdrawn without any adjudication. Section 42, which centralises all subsequent applications in the first court approached, cannot be invoked in such circumstances as the jurisdiction contemplated must be “real, effective, and legally sustainable”, the court said. A Single Bench of Justice...

Award Granting Statutorily Barred Relief Suffers From Patent Illegality: Madras High Court

The Madras High Court on 18 March held that determining whether an arbitral award grants relief barred by law or beyond the contract is a question of legality, not of re-examining evidence. Courts can intervene under Section 34(2A) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 only if the award shows patent illegality. A Division Bench of Justice P. Velmurugan and Justice K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi allowed Southern Railway's appeal and set aside the arbitral award that directed continuation...

Delay In Filing Objections Excused Where Arbitral Tribunal Fails To Provide Signed Award: HP High Court

The Himachal Pradesh High Court held on 19 March that a party cannot be held responsible for delay in filing objections where the arbitral tribunal fails to furnish a signed copy of its award, despite specific requests. Justice Ajay Mohan Goel, while condoning a 16-day delay in filing objections in the dispute between the Chief Engineer, HP PWD National Highway Division, Shimla, and Ceigall India Limited, observed: "This Court is of the considered view that the learned Arbitral Tribunal should...

Delhi High Court Sets Aside Rs 13.31 Crore Arbitral Award In Favour Of Jindal India Against Oriental Insurance

A Rs. 13.31 crore arbitral award in favour of Jindal India Limited has been set aside by the Delhi High Court in a dispute over insurance claims arising from a factory fire, with the court finding that the award went beyond the terms of the contract. Justice Avneesh Jhingan underlined that an arbitrator's authority flows from the agreement between the parties. “The arbitrator cannot go beyond the terms of the contract,” the court said, adding that the methodology adopted to assess loss must...

Apostilled Arbitral Awards From Hague Convention Signatory Countries Enforceable If Authenticity Undisputed: Madhya Pradesh HC

The Madhya Pradesh High Court at Indore has held that apostilled arbitral award copies (documents certified as genuine in countries with which India has reciprocal recognition of such authentication) are valid for enforcement where their authenticity is undisputed, while declaring a Texas-seated foreign award of USD 623,169.37 in favour of PerkinElmer US LLC enforceable. Rejecting objections by Ilishan Biotech Private Limited on non-production of original documents, a single-judge bench of...

Education Not Commercial Activity: Telangana High Court In Arbitration Dispute Over SVIT, Bolton School

Education should not be treated as a mere commercial activity driven solely by management interests, the Telangana High Court has observed, emphasising that disputes over control of institutions must not be carried on at the cost of students, teachers, and academic functioning. The observation came while the Court was dealing with a dispute between Mahbub College Society and Venkat Narayana Educational Society (VNES) over the management of institutions including the Swami Vivekananda Institute...

Bombay High Court Upholds Foreign Award In TASL–Ion Exchange Dispute, Rejects Public Policy Challenge

The Bombay High Court on 17 March held that the “public policy of India” ground under Section 48 of the Arbitration Act, 1996 (the Act), cannot be used to apply Indian legal principles to challenge enforcement of a foreign arbitral award arising from a foreign-law governed contract. Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan allowed a petition filed by Trading and Agency Services Limited (TASL), a Qatari company, to enforce a foreign arbitral award of USD 978,300 against Ion Exchange (India) Limited. The...

Disputes During Subsisting Works Contract Can Be Referred To Arbitration Within 3 Years: Madhya Pradesh HC

The Madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur has recently held that contractors can approach the arbitration tribunal within three years if a dispute arises while a government works contract is still ongoing, even though the law also prescribes a one-year limitation after the final authority's decision. A Division Bench of Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Pradeep Mittal set aside an order of the M.P. Arbitration Tribunal, which had dismissed a plea filed by LCC Projects Pvt. Ltd. against Madhya...

'No Second Bite At The Cherry': Bombay High Court Refuses Plea For Fresh Arbitrator By Negligent Party

The Bombay High Court has observed that while the expiry of an arbitrator's mandate under Section 29A of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 does not automatically terminate arbitral proceedings, a defaulting party cannot be allowed “another bite at the cherry” by seeking appointment of a fresh arbitrator after a court has already refused to extend the mandate due to that party's own negligence. A single-judge bench of Justice Sandeep V. Marne, while dismissing an application filed by...