‘Minority Awards’ in India: A Low-Hanging Fruit for Judicial Interference?

Abstract

While Indian courts are entitled only to ‘set aside’ an arbitral award under section 34 of the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, there have been numerous instances of modification of arbitral awards and this interventionist tendency has driven Indian courts to further devise new tools for interfering with the arbitral process. One such tool is the opinion of the dissenting arbitrator(s). The ‘minority awards’, which were completely overlooked back in time, are now being referred to not only for finding defects in the majority award but also for replacing them altogether. In fact, Indian jurisprudence in this regard has been very peculiar as no other Model Law jurisdiction has witnessed such overemphasis on the significance of the awards of the minority. This article analyses the various reasons cited by the Indian judiciary to approach arbitral awards in the foregoing manner. Particularly, the article addresses the conflict between these reasons and one of the most fundamental objectives sought to be achieved by the 1996 Act, viz. limiting judicial intervention.