A Critical Analysis Of Supreme Court's Intervention On Arbitral Awards In Nepal

The main obstacle to enforce the Arbitral awards in Nepal is judicial intervention.The apex court of the country has acquired its multiple layers of jurisdiction over Arbitral Awards by misinterpreting legal provisions.As per the Arbitration Act's provisions,after getting the Award from Tribunal,the dissatisfied party can go to the High Court to challenges awards.The High Court may invalidate the awards in two conditions.first,In case the dispute settled by the arbitrator cannot be settled through arbitration under the laws of Nepal.Second,in case the decision taken by the arbitrator is detrimental to the public interests or policies.Except for these grounds,the Laws of Nepal didn't foresee any other condition that the court could have exercised its jurisdiction over Arbitral Awards.However,despite the lack of clear legal provisions,the Supreme Court has entertained its different jurisdictions,i.e.appeal and writ.Which resulted that the Awards need to pass through the judicial process,and sometimes it takes almost 20 years.The advantage of commercial arbitration relies on its speedy,informal,expert judging panel and business secret.But the excessive judicial intervention could demolish the spirit of Arbitration.