On January 21, 2026, a full bench of the Madras High Court passed an order in a case titled BM Insulation answering questions of law raised by a single judge on the maintainability of applications filed post-award under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, as amended. The reference was made in light of two inconsistent division bench judgements of the Madras High Court in Gopuram Enterprises and K. Puniyamoorthy. The full bench has held that a post-award Section 9 application is maintainable until the proceedings for execution of the arbitral award are concluded.
This note highlights the inconsistencies that existed prior to the full bench decision and the current position of law.
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This insight has been authored by Shivani Khandekar, Gokul Holani and S M Shriram Kashyap from S&R Associates. They can be reached at [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected], respectively, for any questions. This insight is intended only as a general discussion of issues and is not intended for any solicitation of work. It should not be regarded as legal advice and no legal or business decision should be based on its content.