The Supreme Court of India declined to interfere with an order of the High Court at Calcutta in a commercial dispute between Salson Liquors Private Limited and United Spirits Limited, holding that allegations of forgery and validity of agreements containing an arbitration clause can be examined by the arbitral tribunal.
A Bench comprising the Chief Justice of India, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi was hearing a Special Leave Petition challenging the Calcutta High Court’s judgment dated February 11, 2025.
The principal grievance raised by Salson Liquors before the Supreme Court was that the agreements relied upon by United Spirits, which formed the basis for invoking arbitration, were forged and not validly executed. It was contended that in view of such allegations, the arbitral proceedings should not continue.
The Supreme Court, however, noted that the High Court had already held that the issue of genuineness and valid execution of the agreements could be considered by the arbitrator as a preliminary issue. The Bench was informed that the arbitral proceedings had already commenced.
Accepting the approach adopted by the High Court, the Supreme Court granted liberty to the petitioner to raise all its objections before the arbitrator. The Court requested the arbitral tribunal to consider the submissions on forgery and validity of the agreements preferably at the threshold, before entering into the merits of the dispute.
Clarifying that it had expressed no opinion on the merits of the rival claims, the Supreme Court disposed of the Special Leave Petition along with all pending applications, leaving all contentions of both parties open.
Appearances:
For Petitioner(s) : Mr. 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.
For Respondent(s) : Mr. Dhruv Mehta, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Aditya Mukherjee, Adv.; Mr. Krishna Tangirala, Adv.; Mr. S. S. Shroff, AOR
