No Damages Without Proof Of Loss: Delhi High Court Partly Sets Aside Arbitral Award Against DJB

The Delhi High Court on Monday partly set aside an arbitral award in favour of a contractor against the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), holding that damages cannot be granted on the basis of projected turnover without proof of actual loss. Justice Avneesh Jhingan held that "the award of damages in absence of evidence on record of actual loss suffered or a finding recorded that the loss suffered cannot be proved is in violation of Sections 73 and 74 of the Contract Act and against public policy. The...

Relevant Date Under GST Refund Varies By Claim Type; 2019 Amendment Not Retrospective: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has clarified that the determination of the “relevant date” for computing limitation under Section 54 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (CGST Act) depends on the nature of the refund claimed, and that the 2019 amendment to the provision cannot be applied retrospectively to defeat vested rights of taxpayers.A Division Bench of Justices Prathiba M. Singh and Shail Jain was dealing with petitions challenging rejection of refund claims for unutilised input tax...

Writ Maintainable After Income Tax Assessment If Order Is Ex Facie Without Jurisdiction: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has held that a writ petition under Article 226 is maintainable even after completion of assessment proceedings, where the impugned action is ex facie without jurisdiction.A Division Bench of Justices Dinesh Mehta and Vinod Kumar observed that “simply because the proceedings have culminated into an assessment order, the petitioner cannot be made to suffer the agony of an order which is without jurisdiction on the face of it, until the appellate authority does a formal act of...

Delhi HC Restrains Law Prep From Misusing 'LegalEdge' Mark, Orders Take Down AI Defamatory Content

Noting a dispute between Law Prep and Toprankers over this year’s CLAT topper, the court restrained misuse of her identity and clarified it was not invoking personality rights, holding that a single exam success cannot create such rights

Delhi High Court Dismisses Mahaveer Udyog's Appeal In Trademark Suit Over “Tiger” Mark

The Delhi High Court has dismissed an appeal filed by the proprietor of Mahaveer Udyog in a trademark dispute, refusing to interfere with the finding that the word “TIGER” is commonly used in the trade for agricultural implements and holding that the marks “TIGER GOLD BRAND” and “TIGER PREMIUM BRAND” are not deceptively similar and do not make out a case of passing off.A Division Bench of Justice V. Kameswar Rao and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora upheld the January 9, 2026 order of the...

Delhi High Court Upholds Arbitral Award Ordering PVVNL To Refund ₹4.5 Crore Deducted As Delay Damages To IL&FS

The Delhi High Court has recently refused to interfere with an arbitral award directing Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited (PVVNL) to refund Rs. 4.50 crore deducted as liquidated damages from IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company Ltd, holding that recovery without proof of actual loss cannot be sustained. Dismissing the challenge under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, Justice Subramonium Prasad upheld the award of Rs. 4,50,68,820 along with interest at...

ARN Cannot Be Equated With Valid GST Registration Certificate: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has recently upheld Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's (ONGC) decision to reject a bid for failure to submit a valid Goods and Services Tax registration certificate at the time of bidding, holding that an Application Reference Number (ARN) cannot substitute a GST certificate in tender processes. A Division Bench of Justices V. Kameswar Rao and Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, while dismissing a writ petition filed by Anantaa-MRKR-Arinfra (JV) Pvt. Ltd., said: “An ARN is only an...

Delhi High Court Upholds ₹39.6 Lakh Award Against Austin Hyundai In Paint Supply Dispute With Axalta

The Delhi High Court on Saturday upheld an arbitral award directing Austin Hyundai (Austin Distributors Pvt Ltd) to repay Rs 39.6 lakh to Axalta Coating Systems India Pvt Ltd, holding that termination of its Hyundai dealership did not extinguish its obligations under a separate supply agreement. A bench of Justice Anil Kshetarpal and Justice Amit Mahajan held that the supply agreement imposed independent minimum purchase obligations and was not contingent on the continuation of the dealership. ...

Delhi HC Refuses To Enforce Foreign Award In Favour Of MSA Global Over Arbitrator's Non-Disclosure Of Prior Association

The Delhi High Court has refused to enforce a foreign award in favour of MSA Global LLC (Oman) against Engineering Projects (India) Limited. It held that the arbitrator's failure to disclose a prior arbitral association with the MSA's Chairman gave rise to justifiable doubts as to his independence. The Court said this non-disclosure deprived the respondent of the opportunity to assess and challenge such impartiality. It therefore rendered the award contrary to the public policy of India under...

Delhi High Court Upholds Arbitral Award Directing Flexing It To Convert CCDs Into Equity

The Delhi High Court recently upheld an arbitral award directing Flexing It Services Private Limited to convert investor Colvyn James Harris's compulsorily convertible debentures into equity equivalent to 2% of the company's shareholding as on January 31, 2017. It also upheld the arbitral finding that repeated acknowledgments of liability in correspondence extended the limitation period. Declining to set aside the award in a challenge under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act,...

Arbitral Award Not Decree At Challenge Stage, No Need For Separate Plea On Claims and Counterclaims: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court has recently held that parties can challenge arbitral awards covering both claims and counterclaims through a composite petition under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, rejecting an objection that separate petitions were required as they amounted to distinct “decrees”. Emphasising that Section 36(1), which states that an arbitral award “shall be enforced as if it were a decree of the court,” is confined to the stage of enforcement, the Court observed: "In...

Delhi High Court Corrects Error In Acharya Balkrishna's Personality Rights Order, Removes Bar On Meta, Google

The Delhi High Court on Friday corrected a procedural oversight in the personality rights suit filed by Patanjali's Acharya Balkrishna, clarifying that a restraint on content creation had been inadvertently extended to digital intermediaries, including Meta and Google Justice Tushar Rao Gedela noted that directions in the Court's March 24 order, which were intended primarily for the main content creators, had mistakenly been applied to all defendants, including intermediaries. The earlier...