Court – Bombay High Court
Citation – Comm. Arb. Petition (L) No. 29646 of 2024
Date – 04.07.2025
The Hon’ble Bombay High Court has held that a party which is not a part of the Arbitration cannot be forced to disclose assets or face coercive enforcement and a foreign award cannot be enforced against it.
The Court held,
“11. It is evident that Respondent No.2 is not a party against whom the award sought to be enforced has been made. In these circumstances, the position of Respondent No.2 stands even higher than the position available under Section 48(1)(b) – not only is it a case where Respondent No.2 cannot be said to be a party who was unable to participate in the proceedings, Respondent No.2 is a person who was sought to be made a party and the very arbitral tribunal whose arbitral award is sought to be enforced, had not permitted making Respondent No.2 a party.
12. In these circumstances, no fruitful purpose would be served in keeping Respondent No.2 as a party. If the foundational jurisdictional fact of the arbitral award being an award made as between the Petitioner and Respondent No. 2 is absent, the order dated March 12, 2025 would be one that was passed without jurisdiction.”
– Team AMLEGALS
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