Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha of the Supreme Court's division bench expressed their outrage at the Union Government's attempt to postpone an international arbitration proceeding brought by Reliance Industries on December 14 and questioned whether this was the best way to foster a business-friendly environment.

“The Special Leave Petition by the respondent against the order of the High Court dated 9 December 2022 is yet to be listed before this Court. In the absence of any injunction by this Court, the position clearly is that there is no restraint on the arbitral proceedings.”

Even though there are two foreign arbitrators in India, senior advocate Harish Salve, who is representing Reliance Industries, brought up the point before the bench regarding the delay in the start of the international arbitration. He claimed that the Delhi High Court rejected the Centre's request for the panel of arbitrators to be terminated due to bias. However, because the Center wants to contest the High Court's order, the hearings have not yet started.

Speaking on behalf of the Union Government, Senior Advocate AK Ganguli stated that the Centre had already filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court's order. He further questioned whether "heavens will fall" if the proceedings were postponed until the SLP was resolved.

"Heavens will fall", came the immediate reply of CJI Chandrachud. "On the one hand, we are crying hoarse that we want to encourage foreign investment , encourage business. And is this the kind of business friendly environment that you want to create? A three member international arbitration tribunal is waiting."

At this point, Salve emphasized that the arbitration process was started in 2011. Ganguly was informed by CJI Chandrachud that no injunction is in place to stop the ongoing proceedings.

The RIL petition was dismissed with the notation that the arbitral proceedings are not being impeded.

Case Title : Reliance Industries Ltd vs Union of India 
Citation: SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (CIVIL) Diary No(s).40985/2022
Link: https://main.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2022/40985/40985_2022_1_801_40592_Order_14-Dec-2022.pdf