Emergency Arbitration in India: Gaps, Gains and Goals

Abstract

The idea of arbitration is not new to India, and has existed in varying forms with mixed success. Recent years have witnessed efforts to make India a global arbitration hub. While the legislature has focused on amending the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 to keep pace with global frameworks, the judiciary has, through a spate of decisions, reinforced a pro-arbitration approach. Such an approach, in turn, determines the advancement of law on crucial issues. One such issue is that of emergency arbitration, in particular, the enforcement of its orders. The response of the Indian judiciary is varied and contingent on the seat of arbitration. This conundrum has also caught the legislative eye, which attempted to articulate a framework for emergency arbitration through the recently issued amendment bill. Against this backdrop, the article attempts to explore and critically engage with the approach of the Indian judiciary on the issue of the enforcement of orders of an emergency arbitrator. Firstly, it critically engages with the decisions on this issue, both in the context of arbitration seated in and outside India, to articulate the current state of law. Secondly, it engages in a critical appraisal of the proposed framework under the 2024 amendment bill to ascertain its effectiveness, and finally, concludes with some recommendations on how the proposed approach could be streamlined.