Home Case Index All Cases Indian Laws Indian Laws + HC Indian Laws - 2018 (11) TMI HC This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2018 (11) TMI 366 - BOMBAY HIGH COURTChallenge to Arbitral Award - Jurisdiction of Court - award being a foreign award and the juridical seat of arbitration being outside India - law governing the arbitration agreement being Foreign Law - whether the award passed by the Arbitral Tribunal could be challenged in this Court under Section 34 of the Act? Held that:- The arbitration award under Section 31(3) of the Act is required to be a reasoned award unless the parties agree otherwise or is an award that is passed on agreed terms as contemplated under Section 30. It is not in dispute that the impugned award was passed by the Arbitral Tribunal by applying the provisions of the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association. This being the case, we find that Mr Chinoy is correct in submitting that the Federal Arbitration Act was ipso jure the law applicable to the arbitration / arbitration proceedings. Rule 52(c) clearly stipulates that the parties to an arbitration shall be deemed to have consented that the judgment upon the arbitration award may be entered in any federal or state court having jurisdiction thereof. Having consented and submitted to the jurisdiction of U.S. Law, it is not correct in submitting that the arbitration award is governed by the Laws of India. On a plain reading of clause 15, it is clear that the place of arbitration referred to in clause 15 is the seat of arbitration. The parties expressly chose to have the place of arbitration in New York. This being the case, juridical seat of arbitration was New York. In fact, the appellant themselves invoked arbitration and submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of New York. This being the case, it is not correct to hold that the place of arbitration referred to in clause 15 was merely a venue and not a seat of arbitration. Once the juridical seat of arbitration is outside India, and also the law governing the arbitration agreement is Foreign Law, then clearly, Part-I of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 is impliedly excluded - the learned Single Judge was absolutely correct in holding that the award passed by the Arbitral Tribunal, in the facts and circumstances of the present case, could not be challenged before this Court, under Section 34 of the Act. Appeal dismissed.
|