AIR 2018 SUPREME COURT 4539 ::AIROnline 2018 SC 172 ::(2018) 5 ArbiLR 161 ::(2018) 4 RecCivR 317 ::(2019) 132 All LR 780 ::(2019) 194 AllIndCas 146 (SC)

Supreme Court Of India

(From: Madras)*

Hon'ble Judge(s): Rohinton Fali Nariman, Indu Malhotra , JJ

Arbitration and Conciliation Act (26 of 1996) , S.47, S.48, S.49— Enforcement of foreign awards - Expression 'award' in Item 12 of Sch. 1 of Stamp Act - Does not include foreign award - Hence, levy of stamp duty not necessary for enforcement of foreign awards. Stamp Act (2 of 1899) , Sch.1 Item.12— AIR 1962 PandH 167, Overruled. Expression 'award' has never included a foreign award from the very inception till date. Consequently, a foreign award not being includible in Schedule I of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, is not liable for stamp duty. If stamp duties are leviable in India on foreign awards, the imposition should not be substantially more onerous than the stamp duty that is imposed on recognition or enforcement of domestic arbitral awards. For Article III of New York Convention to apply, stamp duty must first be leviable on a foreign award, which is not the case. Equally, reliance upon the 194th Law Commission of India Report, insofar as stamp duty on domestic awards is concerned, would again have little bearing, in view of Supreme Court's finding that under the present state of the law, foreign awards are not liable to stamp duty under the Indian Stamp Act, 1899. Plea of respondent that S. 47 of the Act requires three things and only three things to be produced before the Court for enforcement of a foreign award, and that therefore, stamp....