The High Court of Delhi (“Delhi HC”) in its recent judgment in the case of Arjun Ahluwalia and Ors v Air India Limited[1] (“Arjun v Air India”) gave a ruling in favour of Air India’s pilots, who were seeking withdrawal of resignations and reinstatement of terminated employees. The Delhi HC passed a common judgment (“Judgment”) in the distinct writ petitions filed by pilots who are permanent employees (“PE”) and pilots working as full-time equivalent (“FTEs”) under fixed term contracts (collectively, “Employees” or “Petitioners”) as their petitions dealt with several common issues. The Judgment distils the principles applicable to resignations under service law and opines on the validity of financial constraint as a ground for termination of employees in State operated companies.
Continue Reading Withdrawal of resignation valid, until effected – Delhi High Court rules
Aman Singhania
Associate in the Dispute Resolution Team at Delhi office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. Aman focuses on commercial litigation and arbitration before different forums including the Supreme Court, High Courts, NCLAT, NCLTs, regulatory commissions and arbitral tribunals. He can be reached at aman.singhania@cyrilshroff.com.
Arbitrable or Not – India at Crossroads?
As a rule, arbitral tribunals have been considered capable of adjudicating every civil or commercial dispute, which can be decided by a civil court, subject to: (i) the dispute being covered under the arbitration agreement; (ii) the party/ parties to the dispute referring the same to arbitration and (iii) the disputes being capable of adjudication and settlement by arbitration.
Having said that, the most contentious issue debated on arbitrability has been “subject-matter arbitrability” i.e. whether the disputes are capable of adjudication and settlement by arbitration. Historically, several disputes in India have been considered ‘non-arbitrable’ on the ground that the subject matter of the dispute is not capable of resolution by arbitration under the Indian law. This has largely been in line with the UNCITRAL Model Law, which permits domestic courts to set aside an arbitral award based on “subject-matter arbitrability”, under the domestic law[1].
Continue Reading Arbitrable or Not – India at Crossroads?