SBI Cards and Payments Services Pvt. Ltd. v. M H Hingora
Case brief
What is this about?
Unilateral appointment of sole arbitrator; arbitral award set aside as void-ab-initio and non-est at execution stage; non-executable award; execution application dismissed; followed Bhadra International (India) Pvt. Ltd. v. Airport Authority of India (SC, Civil Appeal No. 37-38 of 2026, decided 5 January 2026); applied L & T Finance Ltd. v. Sangeeta Bhansali & Anr. (Bom HC, Commercial Execution Application (L) No. 5277 of 2022); liberty to initiate fresh arbitration; limitation exclusion from invocation till order; Bombay High Court OOCJ, Rajesh S. Patil, J.; Shriram Transport Finance; SBI Cards and Payments; India Infoline Finance.
What did the court decide?
The arbitral awards passed by the unilaterally appointed sole arbitrators were declared non-est in law, non-executable and void-ab-initio; the execution applications were dismissed; the Notices and Interim Applications, if any, stood disposed of; the parties were left free to initiate fresh arbitration in accordance with law, with the period from invocation of arbitration till the date of the order excluded for limitation.