The Hon’ble Madras High Court passed a judgment recognizing a foreign arbitral award issued in a Helsinki seated arbitration which was conducted under the rules of the Arbitration Institute of the Finland Chamber of Commerce. The High Court dismissed the objection of the award debtors on the ground of breach of natural justice. Whilst recognizing the opportunities provided by the arbitrator, the High Court held that the award debtors had also not demonstrated how prejudice was caused due to the alleged violation of principles of natural justice. Interestingly, the case also involved third parties intervening in the award enforcement process. The High Court affirmed that such third parties do not have any right to object to the award enforcement.

We, at Nishith Desai Associates, successfully acted as the India legal counsel to the Finnish Fund for Industrial Corporation, the foreign award holder .

The judgment of the Hon’ble Madras High Court is available here.