A New Era For Enforcement Of Foreign Arbitration Awards In India

Keywords: UNCITRAL, Arbitration Act

The Indian Supreme Court has issued an important decision that affects the enforceability of foreign international arbitration awards in India.

The decision in Bharat Aluminium Co. v Kaiser Aluminium Technical Services overrules previous controversial decisions from the Indian Supreme Court in the cases of Bhatia International v Bulk Trading S.A.in 2002 and Venture Global Engineering v Satyam Computer Services Limited in 2008. In those cases, the Court held that, unless the parties to an arbitration agreement expressly or impliedly agreed to the contrary, the Indian courts had similar jurisdiction in foreign-seated arbitrations as they had in domestic arbitrations seated in India, under Part I of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 (the Arbitration Act).