Enforcement of Foreign Awards in India

• Author(s): Ravi Singhania
• Date: 05-Oct-2016

Under the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015. There are two avenues available for the enforcement of foreign awards in India, viz., the New York Convention and the Geneva Convention, as the case may be.

1. Enforcement under the New York Convention

Sections 44 to 52 of the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015 deals with foreign awards passed under the New York Convention.

The New York Convention defines “foreign award” as an arbitral award on differences between persons arising out of legal relationships, whether contractual or not, considered as commercial under the law in force in India, made on or after the 11th day of October, 1960-

• In pursuance of an agreement in writing for arbitration to which the Convention set forth in the First Schedule applies, and
• In one of such territories as the Central Government, being satisfied that reciprocal provisions have been made may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare to be territories to which the said Convention applies.[1]

From the abovementioned conditions, it is clear that there are two pre-requisites for enforcement of foreign awards under the New York Convention. These are:

• The country must be a signatory to the New York Convention.
• The award shall be made in the territory of another contracting state which is a reciprocating territory and notified as such by the Central Government.

Section 47 provides that the party applying for the enforcement of a foreign award shall, at the time of the application, produce before the court (a) original award or a duly authenticated copy thereof; (b) original arbitration agreement or a duly certified copy thereof; and (c) any evidence required to establish that the award is a foreign award. As per the new Act, the application for enforcement of a foreign award will now only lie to High Court.

Once an application for enforcement of a foreign award is made, the other party has the opportunity to file an objection against enforcement on the grounds recognized under Section 48 of the Act. These grounds include:

1. the parties to the agreement referred to in section 44 were, under the law applicable to them, under some incapacity, or the said agreement is not valid under the law to which the parties have subjected it or, failing any indication thereon, under the law of the country where the award was made; or
2. the party against whom the award is invoked was not given proper notice of the appointment of the arbitrator or of the arbitral proceedings or was otherwise unable to present his case; or
3. the award deals with a difference not contemplated by or not falling within the terms of the submission to arbitration, or it contains decisions on matters beyond the scope of the submission to arbitration: Provided that, if the decisions on matters submitted to arbitration can be separated from those not so submitted, that part of the award which contains decisions on matters submitted to arbitration may be enforced; or
4. the composition of the arbitral authority or the arbitral procedure was not in accordance with the agreement of the parties, or, failing such agreement, was not in accordance with the law of the country where the arbitration took place; or
5. the award has not yet become binding on the parties, or has been set aside or suspended by a competent authority of the country in which, or under the law of which, that award was made.
6. the subject-matter of the difference is not capable of settlement by arbitration under the law of India; or
7. the enforcement of the award would be contrary to the public policy of India.

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