Wed Apr 09 15:22:33 UTC 2025: ## Singapore Court Overturns Arbitral Award Due to “Cut-and-Paste” from Previous Cases
**Singapore, April 9, 2025** – The Singapore Court of Appeal has overturned an international arbitration award, citing the presiding arbitrator’s extensive copying from two previous Indian arbitration awards. The decision reveals that former Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, presided over all three cases.
The court found that at least 212 paragraphs from the earlier awards were directly copied into the 451-paragraph award in question, effectively denying the parties a fair hearing. While the court did not allege bad faith, it determined that this reliance on “extraneous considerations” violated the principles of fairness and due process. The ruling highlighted concerns about the integrity of the decision-making process, stating that “to the fair-minded and informed observer, it would appear that the Tribunal might not have adequately applied itself to the facts and submissions actually made in the Arbitration.”
The case stemmed from a dispute between an Indian freight corridor management company and an infrastructure consortium over payments related to a 2017 government notification on minimum wages. Arbitration proceedings took place in Singapore, culminating in a November 2023 award favoring the consortium. This award was subsequently challenged and overturned by the Singapore High Court, and the subsequent appeal was rejected by the Court of Appeal. The court emphasized its commitment to upholding the integrity and fairness of the arbitration process.
First Piper 