In a little heralded development, the Government of India passed the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 (the “Ordinance”) on 4 November 2020 to amend the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 (the “Act”) with immediate effect. The Ordinance introduces provisions to stay the enforcement of arbitral awards tainted by fraud, and deletes certain provisions … Read more

This webinar will unite India disputes experts from the UK and India to take a fresh look at the India-UK disputes corridor, with a particular focus on the amended LCIA Rules, and will take place on Thursday 15 October 2020 12:00 – 1:15pm BST / 4.30 – 5.15pm IST / 7.00 – 8.15pm SGT / … Read more

In this issue we consider India-related investment treaty developments (“BITs“), starting with the signing of India’s new BITs with Belarus and Taiwan. We then consider new investment treaty claims commenced by Indian investors against Saudi Arabia and Macedonia, as well as new claims commenced against India, including the potential claim brought by a Portuguese investor … Read more

After the Arbitration and Conciliation Bill, 2019 (the “Bill“) was passed by both houses of the Indian Parliament, the President of India on 9 August 2019 gave his assent.  The new Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2019 (the “2019 Act“) will amend the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (the “1996 Act“), implementing the recommendations … Read more

Based on the recommendations of the Sri Krishna Committee (previously discussed here), on 3 July 2019, the current Law Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, introduced Bill No.127 of 2019, the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre Bill 2019 (the Bill) in the Lok Sabha. The Bill replaces an ordinance issued by the previous government in March 2019 … Read more

In a decision of 11 March 2019, the Supreme Court of India (the “Court“) struck down part of an arbitration clause which required a claimant to deposit 10 per cent of the amount claimed with the arbitrator before the arbitration went ahead. The contract was between a government entity and a private party and the … Read more

We previously reported here that a Geneva-seated UNCITRAL tribunal (the “Tribunal“) constituted under the India-Germany Bilateral Investment Treaty dated 10 July 1995 (the “India-Germany BIT”) found India in breach of its treaty obligations in relation to its cancellation of a spectrum allocation contract[1] (the “Contract“) in an interim award dated 13 December 2017 (the “Award“). … Read more

India entered into its first bilateral investment treaty (BIT), with the United Kingdom, in 1994, as part of a strategy to attract inbound foreign direct investment (FDI).  Having begun to open its economy in the 1990s, India today is a major investment destination.  The Modi government has been keen to attract further investment, including with … Read more