Enforceability of Arbitration Agreements Contained in Emails

Abstract

In Lets Engineering & Technology Services Pvt. Ltd. v. Manoj Das (judgment date 04.01.2013), the Delhi High Court had to review the scope and ambit of Section 7(4) (b) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 and conclude whether an arbitration clause came into force through an exchange of e-mails between the parties. In the absence of a formal agreement executed between the parties, the court relied on the emails exchanged between the parties to understand the intention of the parties. The Court held that in this case, there existed a valid arbitration agreement between the parties as there has been a record of arbitration agreement through exchange of emails and also that the parties had consented to the agreement by conduct.