RIL arbitration: Supreme Court dismisses govt allegation; arbitration to resume in London

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the government’s allegation of bias against an arbitrator in an ongoing arbitration to resolve a row with Reliance Industries over Panna-Mukta oilfields.

The SC said Indian courts would not interfere in cases in which the parties had agreed to have the seat of arbitration abroad and hence the plea for removal of the arbitrator was not maintainable. This paves the way for the arbitration to be resumed in London over costrecoveries, royalties and tax.

The arbitral panel initially consisted of Christopher Lau as chairman, Peter Leaver as the arbitrator appointed by RIL and British Gas, and Justice BP Jeevan Reddy as the government nominee.

Reddy has since retired, and was replaced by former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy. The government had demanded that Leaver step down as he was biased against the government and sought to reopen the issue of the validity of the arbitration proceedings, which began in 2014.

After unsuccessfully approaching Arbitral Tribunal and Appointing Authority, the government went to the Delhi High Court, pointing out that Leaver had yet to make disclosures on potential conflicts of interest two-and-half years after he was appointed as an arbitrator.