Interim Awards: Definition & Scope Of Challenge

I. INTRODUCTION:

Interim Awards have a crucial role in determining the course of arbitration proceedings and assisting in successful and expedient dispute resolution. Interim Awards are given a lot of weight under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act of 1996 ("Act") since they address specific case merits and have an impact on the parties' substantive rights.

However, due to the lack of detailed legislation on the definition of Interim Awards, parties often find themselves in a state of perplexity where they incorrectly interpret ordinary procedural or interlocutory rulings as Interim Awards and attempt to dispute such orders under Section 34 of the Act. This may result in uncertainty and such uncertainty thereby causes the arbitration proceedings to get prolonged and shift the dynamics of the arbitration proceedings.