How to Enforce a Foreign Arbitral Award in India

Which awards count as foreign in India?

The test is in Section 44 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. Three conditions. First, the dispute must arise from a legal relationship that Indian law treats as commercial. There must be a written arbitration agreement to which the New York Convention of 1958 applies. And the award must be made in a territory the Central Government has notified as a reciprocating territory. India signed the Convention with two reservations: commercial disputes only, and only awards from countries that also apply it. So what matters is where the award was made. Not whose passport the parties carry.

That leads somewhere people don't expect. In PASL Wind Solutions Pvt Ltd v. GE Power Conversion India Pvt Ltd (2021), the Supreme Court said two Indian companies can pick a foreign seat, and the award made there is a foreign award under Part II. Say your Gurugram company and a Pune company arbitrated in Singapore. That award comes home by exactly the same road as an award against a Chinese supplier. We've written more on this in our note on the seat of arbitration and why it decides the court.

Keep an eye on the notified list. Most of India's big trading partners are on it, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Germany and Japan among them. But not every Convention country has been notified. Before you file, check the current Gazette notifications for the country where your award was made. It takes ten minutes. There's also a separate chapter for Geneva Convention awards of 1927, which hardly anyone uses. Awards made in India are domestic awards, even in an international commercial arbitration seated here, and they're enforced under Section 36. For those, read how to enforce an arbitral award in India.

Which court do you actually file in?

Only a High Court. District courts don't take these petitions. The Explanation to Section 47, amended in 2015, says the court for a foreign award is the High Court with original jurisdiction over the subject matter of the award, as if it were a suit. Otherwise, it's the High Court that hears appeals from the subordinate courts in that area. For commercial disputes, Section 10 of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 sends the petition to the Commercial Division wherever the High Court has ordinary original civil jurisdiction. The Delhi High Court does.

But which High Court? Usually the one where the award debtor has assets, lives or carries on business. Courts have accepted petitions filed where the assets sit, because enforcement is about getting at property. Suppose the debtor's registered office is in Mumbai while its bank accounts and factory are in Delhi and Noida. You've got a choice to make. It's the first thing Advocate B.K. Singh looks at in these files: where the attachable assets are, and which High Court can reach them most directly. File near the head office where there's nothing to attach, and you'll end up transferring the decree later anyway.

You don't need the award recognised abroad first, or registered anywhere in India. No suit on the award either. One petition asks the court to hold the award enforceable and, in the same proceeding, to execute it. That's it.

The sections of Part II you'll be dealing with

Rough timeline, and what to budget for

How we take a foreign award through an Indian court

This is roughly the order we work in when a foreign award comes to us for enforcement.

1. Check that the award qualifies

   Was it made in a notified New York Convention country, in a commercial matter, under a written agreement? Is it final and binding under the seat's law, and is anybody challenging it there? We want clear answers before anything else.

2. Find the money

   Bank accounts, what Indian customers owe the debtor, land and buildings, shares in subsidiaries, plant and machinery. What you find decides which High Court you go to. It also shapes what you ask for.

3. Put the Section 47 papers together

   Get the award authenticated the way the seat country requires. Where both countries belong to the Hague Apostille Convention, that's an apostille. You'll also need a certified copy of the contract or arbitration agreement, and certified English translations.

4. Draft the petition

   We plead each Section 44 ingredient and annex the documents. The amount due goes in with interest and costs exactly as awarded. The prayer asks for execution as a decree and names the assets to be attached.

5. Ask for interim protection if you need it

   If there's a real risk the debtor will move money out, ask for interim directions while the petition is pending. A disclosure of assets on affidavit, for instance, or an order stopping it from selling named property.

6. Answer the Section 48 objections

   Reply ground by ground. Don't let the debtor turn the hearing into a second arbitration on the merits. Keep the court on the narrow grounds.

7. Get the Section 49 order

   Once the court holds the award enforceable, it becomes a decree of that High Court. The same file then moves into execution.

8. Execute

   Attachment and sale. Garnishee orders on the debtor's banks and customers. Examination of the debtor about its assets under Order XXI of the CPC. This is where money actually changes hands.

What can the debtor argue under Section 48?

Section 48(1) lists the grounds the resisting party has to prove. A party was under some incapacity, or the arbitration agreement isn't valid under the law that governs it. The party wasn't given proper notice of the arbitrator's appointment or of the proceedings, or couldn't present its case for some other reason. The award deals with matters outside what was submitted to arbitration. The tribunal's composition or procedure didn't follow the agreement or the law of the seat. Or the award isn't binding yet, or has been set aside or suspended at the seat. That's the whole list. And if only part of the award goes beyond the submission, the proviso to Section 48(1)(c) lets the rest be enforced.

Section 48(2) is different. Here the court can refuse on its own if the dispute couldn't be settled by arbitration under Indian law, or if enforcement would be contrary to the public policy of India. Since 2015 the Explanations confine public policy to three situations: fraud or corruption induced or affected the award, it contravenes the fundamental policy of Indian law, or it conflicts with the most basic notions of morality or justice. Explanation 2 adds that the fundamental policy test doesn't allow a review on the merits. Patent illegality? It can be raised against domestic awards under Section 34. Against foreign awards it isn't a ground at all.

The Supreme Court has kept these grounds narrow, again and again. In Renusagar Power Co v. General Electric Co (1994) it gave public policy a limited meaning for foreign awards. In Shri Lal Mahal Ltd v. Progetto Grano SpA (2014) it wouldn't let the losing side re-argue the quality evidence and call it public policy. In Vijay Karia v. Prysmian Cavi E Sistemi SRL (2020) it said refusal should happen only in exceptional cases, and that the inability to present one's case ground is about a real denial of a fair hearing. It isn't about how the tribunal weighed the evidence. If you hold the award, that's reassuring. If you owe it, it's sobering.

How long do you have to file?

Three years. In Government of India v. Vedanta Ltd (2020), the Supreme Court held that a petition to enforce a foreign award falls under Article 137 of the Limitation Act, 1963, the residuary article for applications. It has to be filed within three years from the date the right to apply accrues. The Court also said delay can be condoned under Section 5 of the Limitation Act if sufficient cause is shown. What it rejected was the argument that the twelve-year period for executing decrees applies. A foreign award becomes a decree only after the court is satisfied under Section 49, so that longer period can't help you before then.

Don't treat condonation as a plan. It's discretionary. And the debtor will say you sat on your rights while it was busy rearranging its assets. If the award was challenged at the seat, take advice on when the right to apply accrued in your particular case, then file well inside three years from the earliest date anyone could argue for. The related periods are covered in our page on how limitation applies to arbitration claims.

Stamp duty, and the challenge pending at the seat

There's no stamp duty on a foreign award. In Shriram EPC Ltd v. Rioglass Solar SA (2018), the Supreme Court held that a foreign award isn't an award within the meaning of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, so it needn't be stamped before enforcement. Court fee on the petition is a different matter. That depends on the High Court's current schedule.

A challenge pending at the seat doesn't stop you on its own. Section 48(1)(e) allows refusal only where the award has actually been set aside or suspended at the seat, or isn't yet binding. Where the challenge is merely pending, Section 48(3) gives the Indian court two options. It can adjourn the decision on enforcement, and it can order the resisting party to give suitable security. We'd usually press for security in that situation. It turns a delay into protection, and that's about the most useful thing an award holder can get at that stage.

And an Indian court can't set aside a foreign award. Since Bharat Aluminium Co v. Kaiser Aluminium Technical Services (2012), Part I of the Act, Section 34 included, doesn't apply to arbitrations seated abroad. The debtor's only fight in India is resisting enforcement under Section 48. Nothing else.

Papers you'll need for a Section 47 petition

Turning the Section 49 decree into money

Once the award is deemed a decree, the ordinary execution tools are open to you. You can ask the court to attach bank accounts. You can get garnishee orders telling the debtor's customers to pay what they owe it into court. Immovable property can be attached and sold, a receiver appointed, and the debtor's directors ordered to disclose its assets on affidavit. In Rahul S. Shah v. Jinendra Kumar Gandhi (2021), the Supreme Court told courts to decide execution proceedings ordinarily within six months. That helps. Contested execution still often runs longer. Our sister site explains the general process on its page on execution of a decree.

Most foreign awards are in a foreign currency. State the amount in that currency in the petition, along with the awarded interest and the rupee equivalent on a stated date, and ask the court to fix the conversion date. If interest on the award is unclear, see how interest on arbitral awards works. It gets harder if the debtor has shifted assets into a group company. Courts have enforced foreign awards against non-signatories in some situations, Gemini Bay Transcription Pvt Ltd v. Integrated Sales Service Ltd (2021) being one example. The principles are in our note on when a non-signatory is bound by an arbitration clause.

Before you file, look hard at what the debtor really owns. The public sources are listed in our sister site's guide on finding out whether a debtor has assets.

If the award has gone against your company

Don't ignore the petition. If you file no objections, the court can hold the award enforceable on the papers alone. Sit down with your lawyer, read Section 48, and be honest about whether you have a ground that fits. No notice of the arbitration. An arbitration agreement you never signed. An award on something outside the reference. A genuine public policy problem such as fraud. Disagreeing with the tribunal's findings, however strongly you feel, isn't a ground.

If you've challenged the award at the seat, tell the Indian court quickly and ask it to adjourn under Section 48(3). Expect to be asked for security. If you've got no ground, settling before execution starts usually costs less than the interest that keeps ticking on the award. Fighting enforcement on weak grounds also invites costs against you. If you need breathing time, our page on getting a stay against enforcement explains how courts set conditions, though it's written mainly with domestic awards in mind.

Mistakes that hold up enforcement

• Filing without authenticated documents. Walk in with a photocopy of the award or an uncertified contract and you'll face a preliminary objection straight away. Sort out the apostille and certified copies first.
• Picking the court out of habit. If you file where the debtor's head office is instead of where its assets are, you may need a transfer of the decree later. That's months gone.
• Letting time run during settlement talks. The three-year clock under Article 137 keeps going while everyone is being polite. Put the talks in writing and watch the date.
• Asking for more than the award gives. Throw in interest or costs the tribunal didn't award and you've handed the debtor an easy point. Claim exactly what was granted, with interest as awarded.
• Keeping quiet about a seat challenge. The court will find out, and your credibility goes with it. Disclose it, and ask for security under Section 48(3).
• Leaving execution for later. A Section 49 order with no assets traced is a decree on paper and nothing more. Do the asset search before you file.

Go to court first, or try to settle?

Usually both, but get ready for court first. A foreign award debtor with assets in India often starts talking seriously only once a petition is on file and an interim order on its bank accounts looks like a real possibility. Negotiate before you've traced assets and prepared the papers, and you'll be offered a fraction of the award. The debtor knows how long enforcement can take. After filing, with a hearing date fixed, the numbers tend to get better.

Sometimes enforcing in India just isn't worth it. If the debtor's only presence here is a liaison office in a rented flat with a few staff, and its real assets sit elsewhere, it may make more sense to enforce in the country where the money is, under that country's New York Convention law. If the award is small and the debtor is contesting it at the seat, parallel proceedings could cost more than you'd recover. And where the debtor company is already in insolvency proceedings in India, the award holder usually files a claim with the resolution professional. Not an execution.

Write any settlement so that it can be enforced by itself. A clear amount, dates, what happens on default, and an agreement that the award revives in full if payments stop. A loose email promising instalments is worth very little once the debtor stops after the first cheque.

Picking a lawyer for foreign award enforcement

This work sits between arbitration and execution. You want someone at home in both. Look for a lawyer who regularly appears in the Commercial Division of the High Court where you'll file, who has dealt with Section 48 objections, and who can push an execution against bank accounts and receivables without losing months. Ask how they'll work with the counsel who ran the arbitration abroad, because the arbitration record will be the evidence on most objections. Ask for a written plan with stages and a time estimate. Not a promise of results. Our guide on how to choose an arbitration lawyer in Delhi lists questions worth asking.

When a foreign award file reaches Advocate B.K. Singh, the second thing he checks, after the assets, is the notice trail in the arbitration. That means every email and courier showing the debtor was told about the appointment and about each hearing. In practice, most Section 48 objections are dressed up as lack of notice or inability to present the case. A clean notice trail answers them quickly. If your record has gaps, it's better to know before you file.

What to do this week

Dig out the original award or arrange an authenticated copy, and find the signed contract. Note the date of the award and whether anyone challenged it at the seat. Write down what you know about the debtor's assets in India: banks, offices, factories, customers, group companies. Work out the amount due with the awarded interest. If you're on the other side, pull together the notice correspondence and the procedural orders from the arbitration. Related reading, such as whether emergency arbitration orders are enforceable, is on our arbitration home page.

If you'd like a view on where and how to file, send the award, the contract and whatever you know about the debtor's assets to Advocate B.K. Singh's team through our contact page.