In Gayatri Balasamy (“Appellant”)
vs. ISG Novasoft Technologies Limited
(“Respondent”)1, a
five-judge constitution bench of the Hon'ble SupremeCourt of
India (“SC”) in a 4:1 majority inter
alia held that courts have a limitedpower to modify an arbitral
award under Sections 34 and 37 of theArbitration and Conciliation
Act, 1996 (“Arbitration Act”).
FACTS
The case arose from conflicting judgments of the SC on whether
courts canmodify arbitral awards when hearing challenges under
Section 34 of theArbitration Act. A three-judge bench had referred
the matter to a largerbench to determine the correctness of the
SC's earlier judgment in Project Director, NHAI v. M.
Hakeem2, which held that courts cannot modify
awardsunder Section 34 of the Arbitration Act.
