Seat V/S Venue: A Parley Of Incertitude In Arbitration

Jaya Agarwal, Department of Law (Hazra Campus), University of Calcutta

ABSTRACT

"All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones. In my opinion, there never was a good war or a bad peace. When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?" - Benjamin Franklin.

It is a long-standing parley between the terms of Seat and Venue of Arbitration in Arbitration Contracts. Since there has been no written definition of both the terms in the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996, parties often end up using it interchangeably which leads to confusion and dispute. Therefore, most of these Contract makers depend on the Obiter Dicta and Ratio Decidendi of the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court as most of the cases related to this issue are filed in these courts.

The Author has made efforts to further put a clarification to this contention by citing various judgements by these Courts even 2 years after Covid, as it is no new information to the readers that the Court proceedings were held in online mode, which further lead the lines between Seat and Venue indistinct.