Arbitration in foreign country

Dear Vijaya,

Provision of Section 9 & 34 of Arbitration act is no more applicable since the Supreme court has over ruled the Bhatia International and decided in very clear term in CIVIL APPEAL NO.7019 OF 2005, if sitting of the Arbitration is in abroad.

Dear Vijaya,

Though I agree with the above mentioned view of Mr. Nagwan I wish to point out a very important point. In the case of Bharat Aluminium Co v Kaiser Aluminium Technical Services Inc the court has overruled the BHATIA INTERNATIONAL's judgement PROSPECTIVELY which renders the same very dicey.

The concluding paragraphs of the 190-page judgment have been reproduced below:

"  201. The judgment in Bhatia International (supra) was rendered by this Court on 13th March, 2002. Since then, the aforesaid judgment has been followed by all the High Courts as well as by this Court on numerous occasions. In fact, the judgment in Venture Global Engineering (supra) has been rendered on 10th January, 2008 in terms of the ratio of the decision in Bhatia International (supra). Thus, in order to do complete justice, we hereby order, that the law now declared by this Court shall apply prospectively, to all the arbitration agreements executed hereafter."

This one element of the judgment that has  given rise to some serious concern. In prospectively overruling Bhatia International, the court held that the law declared by it would apply to all arbitration agreements executed after the date of the judgment. This aspect of the ruling is surprising, and hence the said judgement shall have no effect on the  pending proceedings but only those arbitration agreement entered after the date of the judgment.

So as of now you have to check whether your arbitration agreement dates before the said date of the said judgement i.e. before 6th of September, 2012 otherwise the BHATIA  INTERNATIONAL's case will still have effect.

Regards,

Sagnik Sanyal

Thanks a lot sir, really appreciate it --Regards Vijaya