By Palak Shah for Business Standard
The Supreme Court (SC) of India’s recent decision to allow and uphold the prayers of a ‘Curative Petition’ in an ‘Arbitration Award’ will go down in the annals of legal history globally, since it concerns the country’s image as a business hub where commercial arbitrations play a vital role. As it is, ‘Curative Petition’ is an extremely narrow lane of jurisprudence (unique to Indian judiciary) that challenges the ‘Doctrine of Finality’ or Res Judicata, which implies that it can be invoked only in the ‘Rarest Of Rare Cases’ and may not fit the bill on the Intervention of Courts in ‘Arbitration Awards,’ which are commercial contractual agreement between parties.
The fact that the recent SC decision had the potential to shock even the most jaded soul in the legal fraternity can be gauged by the caveat issued by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) J. DY Chandrachud and the two other judges on the bench J. BR Gavai and J. Surya Kant decided on the ‘curative petition.’ (Both J. Gavai and J. Surya Kant are in line to be India’s next CJI). Before delivering the judgement, the three judges warned…
