Vedanta Limited (Vedanta) and Cairn Energy Hydrocarbons Limited (CEHL) secured a significant favourable ruling in an appeal under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, filed by the Government of India (GOI) before the Hon’ble Delhi High Court. The Section 37 appeal challenged an interim order under Section 17 of the Act passed by an arbitral tribunal in an international commercial arbitration, relating to recovery of costs under a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) for the Rajasthan Oil Block.

The GOI had filed the Section 17 application to restrain Vedanta and CEHL from rendering accounts in accordance with the Final Partial Award (FPA) dated 08.12.2023 and make adjustments of approx. USD 534 million. The arbitral tribunal’s interim order dated 29.04.2024 rejected the GOI’s application under Section 17 of the Act. The GOI challenged the said interim order dated 29.04.2024 and sought reversal of the adjustments made and also sought restraint on future adjustments by Vedanta and CEHL.

Today, the Hon’ble Delhi High Court has dismissed the GOI’s appeal against the arbitral tribunal’s interim order as devoid of merits, holding that within its limited jurisdiction under Section 37 of the Act, the Court found no reasons to interfere with the well-reasoned order passed by the arbitral tribunal.

Vedanta Limited and CEHL were represented by Mr. Harish Salve, Senior Advocate and DMD Advocates (led by Ms. Anuradha Dutt, Mr. Anish Kapur, Mr. Chaitanya Kaushik, Ms. Priyanka MP, Mr. Kunal Dutt, Mr. Raghav Dutt, Ms. Payal Nayak, and Mr. Arkaprava Dass).