The apex court's ruling affirms a July 1 Delhi High Court verdict that rejected government objections regarding a 1994 Ravva Oil Field contract. That original production sharing agreement included Videocon Petroleum, Oil and Natural Gas Corp, and Command Petroleum (India) Pty, which later merged into Vedanta. The High Court had determined that the dispute could not be revisited simply because the government disliked the arbitral tribunal's majority interpretation. Furthermore, the tribunal seated in Kuala Lumpur had previously issued a partial award in October 2004 while leaving quantification unresolved.
Key points
The Supreme Court cautioned that persistent government resistance to enforcing decades-ol…: The Supreme Court cautioned that persistent government resistance to enforcing decades-old arbitral awards undermines confidence in India’s arbitration framework.
Indian courts cannot be asked to revisit the merits of an arbitral dispute simply because…: Indian courts cannot be asked to revisit the merits of an arbitral dispute simply because the government disagrees with the tribunal's interpretation.
The challenged arbitral awards had already survived judicial review within the curial cou…: The challenged arbitral awards had already survived judicial review within the curial courts of Malaysia prior to enforcement in India.
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The government had challenged the Delhi High Court's July 1 judgement that rejected its objections to the enforcement of the arbitral awards and directed release of the bank guarantees maintained by Vedanta in 2018.
A Bench led by Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manmohan criticised the Centre for resisting enforcement of awards that date back more than two decades, warning that the litigation could undermine confidence in India's arbitration regime. "Nobody will trust you, if you behave like this. What are these arguments? You are frustrating an arbitral award like this? At the stage of enforcement of it? And we talk about all of this arbitration and seat and this and that?... ," it said.
The HC in its judgment had also stated that the arbitral awards have withstood the judicial scrutiny before the curial courts of Malaysia and the government cannot seek the high court to decide the merits of the dispute because it disagrees with the majority of the arbitral tribunal's interpretation.
The dispute arose from a 1994 production sharing contract between the petroleum ministry and a…
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