STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA LIMITED v. POSCO ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION COMPANY LIMITED.

Mr. Ratnanko Banerji, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the award-holder, has submitted that the order impugned is not appellable since it has not set aside or refused to set aside an arbitral award under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act. It is submitted that the parties have entered into a commercial agreement in which the venue of the arbitral proceeding was mentioned as New Delhi. It is an international commercial arbitration. In view of catena of decisions where it has been held that the seat of arbitration is akin to exclusive jurisdiction of Courts where such proceeding is held the decision of the learned Single Judge was correct and does not call for any interference. In any event, it is submitted that the learned Single Judge has not decided the legality and validity of the arbitral award on merits. In view of the decisions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Kandla Export Corporation vs. OCI Corporation1, BGS SGS SOMA JV vs. NHPC Limited2 and Hindustan Copper Limited vs. Nicco Corporation Limited3, the order referring to admit an appeal for setting aside an award due to lack of jurisdiction is not maintainable. The decision in BGS SGS SOMA (Supra) has been specifically relied upon to show that in a similar situation where the Special Commercial Court, Gurgaon allowed the application of the petitioner and returned the petition filed under