Supreme Court flags 24-year delay in enforcing arbitral award, asks Law Commission to study execution process

In Royal Construction Company Pvt. Ltd. v. National Projects Construction Corporation, the Supreme Court set aside a Delhi High Court order that had allowed parties to seek fresh 'clarification' from it on an execution dispute arising from a 2002 international arbitral award. The Court held the High Court had misread the scope of an earlier Supreme Court ruling: once a certified substantial question of law under Articles 133(1)(a) and 134-A of the Constitution is answered, the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction in that proceeding is exhausted, and it cannot be asked to supervise ongoing execution or decide fresh factual questions outside that question.

The bench of Justice Vikram Nath disposed of the appeal on this narrow point, but added an epilogue expressing concern that, nearly 24 years after the award and almost three decades into the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 regime, enforcement under Section 36 of that Act remained mired in litigation, defeating the object of minimal judicial intervention. The Court requested the Law Commission of India to study the statutory and procedural framework for enforcing and executing arbitral awards, examine comparative practice, and recommend reforms, directing the Registry to forward a copy of the judgment to the Commission's Chairman.