Courts Have Failed Arbitration: Arbitration Has Not Failed, Courts Have: Supreme Court Reaffirms Judicial Restraint And Finality In Arbitral Proceedings

Introduction

An arbitral award passed in 2014. A dispute originating from a termination of contract in 2007. And yet, by 2026, the award-holder had still not received the fruits of its award.

This is the factual backdrop against which the Supreme Court, in Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation Ltd. v. M/s Jabalpur Corridor Pvt. Ltd., delivered what may well be one of its most candid indictments of judicial conduct in arbitration matters.

Dismissing the appeal filed by the Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation Ltd. (“MPRDC”) against an arbitral award of Rs. 49 crores with 14.75% pre-award interest, the bench of Justice J.K. Maheshwari and Justice Atul S. Chandurkar did not merely uphold the award on merits. It issued a pointed institutional warning: that courts, and not the arbitration mechanism itself, have at times been the primary obstacle to finality in Indian arbitration.