India—Scope of interim reliefs under the Arbitration Act are wider than the threshold under civil procedure laws governing litigation (Essar House v Arcellor Mittal)

Article summary

Arbitration analysis: Recently, the Supreme Court of India (‘Supreme Court’) held that the court is not bound by the rigours of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 (CPC 1908) when deciding an application for grant of interim reliefs under Section 9 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996 (‘Arbitration Act’). Section 9 of the Arbitration Act deals with interim measures that can be granted by the Court before or during the arbitral process, or any time after the arbitral award is made but before its enforcement. Consequently, the Supreme Court held that the scope of an interim relief under the Arbitration Act is wider than the CPC 1908. In addition, the Supreme Court also clarified that a strong possibility of diminution of assets is sufficient for the court to grant interim reliefs under the Arbitration Act. Written by Alipak Banerjee, Shweta Sahu and Ansh Desai, International Dispute Resolution...