Firm Matters

Khaitan & Co Advised and successfully represented Naaptol Online Shopping Pvt Ltd before the Hon’ble Bombay High Court in Commercial Arbitration Petition No. 884 of 2025, a post-award petition under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“Act”) arising from an arbitral award dated 5 May 2025. By its judgment dated 17 January 2026, the High Court delivered a significant ruling holding that once an arbitral award is conditionally stayed by the Section 34 Court under Section 36(3) of the Act, a separate post-award Section 9 petition is not maintainable. Upholding the Respondent’s contentions, the Court held that the Section 34 Court alone remains in seisin of the award and has exclusive authority to impose and regulate conditions of stay, and that permitting parallel interim reliefs under Section 9 would risk inconsistent orders and effectively amount to sitting in appeal over the Section 34 Court’s order.

The Court further clarified that the remedy of interim measures under Section 9 is not available to an award creditor once a Section 34 petition is entertained and a conditional stay is granted. The Judgment therefore brings much-needed clarity and certainty to the law governing post-award intervention and delineates the contours of jurisdiction between Sections 9, 34 and 36 of the Act.