No Room For Spectators: Why The Supreme Court Says Arbitration Is For Signatories Only

Introduction

On 13 August 2025, the Hon'ble Supreme Court ("the Court") in a seminal ruling held that non-signatories to an arbitration agreement were not authorized to be privy to the arbitration proceedings initiated under the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996 ("the Act"). The Court reasoned that allowing non-signatories to attend arbitration proceedings violated the confidentiality of the arbitration proceedings stipulated under Section 42A of the Act.

The judgement of the Court is a significant one in that it recognizes the obligation of the Arbitral Tribunal and the parties to the arbitration agreement to maintain confidentiality norms during the arbitration proceedings. The Court has essentially solidified the private and closed nature of the arbitration proceedings setting a new benchmark for maintaining the tenets of confidentiality. Additionally, the Court also ruled that a Court after appointing the arbitrator under Section 11(6) of the Act becomes