Supreme Court: Foreign Juridical Seat Automatically Excludes Part I

Supreme Court: Foreign juridical seat automatically excludes part I

Supreme Court:

• Reiterates that choosing a juridical seat of arbitration automatically attracts the law of such location to the arbitration proceedings;
• May have expanded upon the conditions required for implied exclusion of part 1 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996 to foreign seated arbitrations;

INTRODUCTION:

The Supreme Court ("Court") in the case of Etizen Bulk A/S ("Etizen") v Ashapura Minechem Ltd. and Anr.¹ ("AML") has stated that the mere choosing of a juridical seat of arbitration would automatically attract the law applicable to such a location to the arbitration proceedings.

Setting aside a ruling of the Gujarat High Court and upholding a ruling of the Bombay High Court, the Court held that since the parties had agreed that the seat of the arbitration was London and English Law was applicable, there was an exclusion of Part I of the Arbitration & Conciliation