Supreme Court: In a Special Leave Petition (SLP) arising out of the impugned judgment and order dated 11 February 2025 passed by the Calcutta High Court, a 3-judge bench of Surya Kant, CJ., Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi, JJ., affirmed the impugned order holding that the issue of genuineness or valid execution of the subject agreements can be taken up as a preliminary issue by the Arbitrator and refused to interfere with the same.
In the instant matter, the dispute between the parties centred around certain agreements which contained an arbitration clause. The petitioner questioned the very genuineness and execution of the agreements containing the arbitration clause. It was urged that when the arbitration agreement itself is alleged to be forged, the Court must undertake the limited but mandatory scrutiny contemplated under Section 11(6A), Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.
The Court noted that High Court at Calcutta had already considered the objection regarding forgery and validity of execution and held that the issue of genuineness or valid execution of the subject agreements could be taken up by the Arbitrator as a preliminary issue. Further, it was noted that the arbitral proceedings had already commenced.
In that backdrop, the Court held that the petitioner shall be at liberty to raise all the contentions before the Arbitrator and requested the Arbitrator to consider such submissions, “preferably as a preliminary issue, before proceeding on the merits of the case.” It, further, clarified that all the contentions from both sides are left open.
The Court declined to interfere with the impugned order.
[Salson Liquors Private Ltd. v. United Spirits Ltd., Special Leave to Appeal (C) No(s). 16022/2025, decided on 20-2-2026]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
Saurav Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Vidur Bhatia, Adv. Ms. Sulekha Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Mrinal Gupta, Adv. Ms. Saloni Paliwal, Adv. Mr. Arya Bhat, Adv. Mr. Harsh Khabar, Adv. Mr. Baidurya Ghosal, Adv. Mr. Ashish Choudhury, AOR Mr. Akash Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Arora, Adv. Ms. Prachi Grover, Adv., Counsel for the Petitioner
Mr. Dhruv Mehta, Sr. Adv. Mr. Aditya Mukherjee, Adv. Mr. Krishna Tangirala, Adv. Mr. S. S. Shroff, AOR, Counsel for the Respondent
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