Stamped Out Or Not: Finality To The Issue Of Unstamped Arbitration Agreement

On December 13, 2023 a seven judge bench of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in In Re: Interplay between Arbitration Agreements under the Arbitration And Conciliation Act, 1996 and the Indian Stamp Act, 1899¹, unanimously ruled on the issue surrounding the admissibility of unstamped or insufficiently stamped instrument in evidence, which arose in the context of three statues - the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 ("Arbitration Act"), the Indian Stamp Act 1899 ("Stamp Act"), and the Indian Contract Act 1872 ("Contract Act"). The Court held that an instrument which is unstamped or insufficiently stamped would be inadmissible in evidence, however the same is a curable defect and that in itself does not make the agreement void or unenforceable. In doing so, the Apex Court has overruled the judgment passed by five judge bench of this Court in NN Global Mercantile Private Limited v. Indo Unique Flame Limited² , ("NN Global 2") and has settled the issue by holding that Courts