Analysing the Problem of Minority Awards in India

Abstract

The practice of upholding minority awards is not only on a completely different footing than partly severing and upholding the arbitral award, but also fails to provide a legal basis under the provisions of the Arbitration Act or any legal jurisprudence. The minority views are coloured as “arbitral awards”, which gives a false impression of party autonomy still being present in such a determination. This problem is more cantered on the approach of the courts, and has to be resolved by suitable judicial pronouncements. If it goes unchecked, it would threaten to defeat the very purpose arbitration by opening a Pandora’s box. This article analyses the problem of upholding minority awards in light of the Indian court judgments.