BOMBAY GAS COMPANY LIMITED Vs. MARK VICTOR MASCARENHAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) i)Can a Foreign Award made under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 be challenged on merits by virtue of Section 48 in particular or under any other provision of the Act of 1996? ii)Can the challenge be made by way of a separate Arbitration Petition or is the right of the party against whom the Foreign Award has been made limited only to resisting the enforceability of Award on the basis of the grounds provided in Section 48 of the Act of 1996? iii)Is Section 48 capable of two reasonable interpretations? iv)Is the question of interpretation of Section 48 of the Act of 1996 to be restricted only to the words of Section 48? v)Is it permissible when interpreting the provisions of the Statute to have regard to the legislative history culminating in the enactment of the 1996 Act to determine the Legislative intention and the mischief sought to be remedied?

(2.) THESE important, interesting, inextricably intertwined, pristinely legal, questions fall for the consideration of this Court in these two Arbitration Petitions filed under Section 48 of the Act of 1996.

(3.) AS the facts are common and the Award impugned in both the petitions are common, both the Arbitration Petitions are being disposed of by this Common judgment. For the sake of convenience the facts are taken from Arbitration Petition No. 238 of 1998.