Enforcement Of Foreign Arbitral Awards - Scope Of Public Policy And Recent Developmental Perspectives

Recent judicial pronouncements on the subject of enforcement of foreign arbitral awards have shed light on the need for a consistent approach from the courts in defining the scope of interference under public policy for denying the enforcement of the same. This article is an attempt to explain and elaborate on the prevailing legal position with reference to the recent Supreme Court and Delhi High Court judgments on this subject. Section 48(2)(b) of Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 (hereinafter A&C Act) which is modelled on the lines of Article V of the New York Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, 1958 (hereafter New York Convention) is an enabling provision which takes a pro-enforcement bias towards the foreign awards. However, the recent judgment of Supreme Court in NAFED v. Alimenta SA (2020 SCCOnline SC 381), is a step taken in the opposite direction. Before addressing the inherent fallacies of the judgment, the Supreme Court in