Challenges to an arbitration award: abuse of process in arbitration

The long-running dispute between the Indian Government and Reliance Industries over the exploitation of oil and gas resources off India has reached the English courts for the third time, in Union of India v Reliance Industries Ltd [2022] EWHC 1407 (Comm); [2022] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 201. The judgment of Sir Ross Cranston lays down important principles relating to the relevance of abuse of process in arbitration, confirming that a party who does not raise an issue at the appropriate point in an arbitration will not be able to do so at a later stage in the arbitration by which time the tribunal has made an award inconsistent with the issue raised.

The facts