Supreme Court Opines Against Forum Shopping In Foreign Seated Arbitrations

• Supreme Court holds that forum shopping resorted by Union of India is nothing but abuse of the process of Court;
• Supreme Court affirms that in a pre BALCO agreement, Part I will be impliedly excluded if either, the parties decided on a foreign seat; or if the parties agreed on a foreign law to govern the arbitration agreement;
• Another pro-arbitration ruling by the Supreme Court aimed at reducing judicial interference in foreign seated arbitrations.

Recently, the Supreme Court of India ("Supreme Court") in Union of India ("Appellant") v. Reliance Industries Limited & Ors¹ ("Respondents") while hitting hard at the forum shopping tactics adopted by the Appellant, has given clarity on the principle of implied exclusion held in Bhatia International v. Bulk Trading S.A. and Anr.² ("Bhatia International"). This ruling is significant for agreements entered into by the parties before the decision in Bharat Aluminium Company and Ors. v. Kaiser Aluminium Technical