LAW FOR ALL

Corporate Laws - Arbitration Act = (1) Whether Gangavaram Port Limited (GPL) is right in contending that Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) dated 11.08.2012 and Original Package No. 4 Tender Document and Corporate Guarantee dated 17.03.2012 executed by Duro Felguera covers all the five split-up Packages awarded to Duro Felguera and FGI and whether there has to be a composite reference/single arbitral tribunal for "International Commercial Arbitration" covering all the five different Packages and also the Corporate Guarantee executed by Duro Felguera? (2) Whether there have to be 'multiple arbitral tribunals' for each of the five different Packages of Work awarded to the foreign company-Duro Felguera and Indian Subsidiary-FGI (one International Commercial Arbitral Tribunal plus four Domestic Arbitral Tribunals) and another one arbitral tribunal for 'international commercial arbitration' under Corporate Guarantee (17.03.2012) executed by the foreign company-Duro Felguera? = 13.The scope of the power under Section 11 (6) of the 1996 Act was considerably wide in view of the decisions in SBP and Co. (supra) and Boghara Polyfab (supra). This position continued till the amendment brought about in 2015. After the amendment, all that the Courts need to see is whether an arbitration agreement exists - nothing more, nothing less. The legislative policy and purpose is essentially to minimize the Court’s intervention at the stage of appointing the arbitrator and this intention as incorporated in Section 11 (6A) ought to be respected. 14 In the case at hand, there are six arbitrable agreements (five agreements for works and one Corporate Guarantee) and each agreement contains a provision for arbitration. Hence, there has to be an Arbitral Tribunal for the disputes pertaining to each agreement. While the arbitrators can be the same, there has to be six Tribunals - two for international commercial arbitration involving the Spanish Company-M/s Duro Felguera, S.A. and four 44 for the domestic.