One arbitration, two courts, multiple injunctions (MSA Global LLC (Oman) v Engineering Projects (India) Ltd)
Arbitration analysis: This dispute is a rare case of two competing court interventions in relation to an arbitration. A non-seat court in Delhi decided to exercise certain supervisory functions by issuing an anti-arbitration injunction. The seat court in Singapore disagreed that the non-seat court had the jurisdiction to do so, and also issued an anti-suit injunction. EPIL (the contractor) sought to set aside a Singapore-seated partial award in the Singapore High Court. The Singapore High Court (as the seat court) dismissed EPIL’s setting aside application, and its attempt to introduce apparent bias of an arbitrator as an additional ground for setting aside. While EPIL brought another challenge application against the same arbitrator in Singapore, it has commenced proceedings in the Delhi Court also to challenge the arbitrator, and to enjoin the counterparty (MSA, the sub-contractor) from continuing with the Arbitration. The Singapore Court first granted an interim anti-suit injunction for the Delhi Proceedings. But the Delhi Proceedings carried on, and led to an interim anti-arbitration injunction by the Delhi Proceedings. The Singapore Court in its judgment granted a permanent anti-suit injunction against EPIL in relation to the Delhi Proceedings, finding also that the Delhi Court had no power to intervene in the Arbitration. Written by Violet Huang, counsel at Colin Seow Chambers.