Failure to provide a proper hearing renders an arbitral award liable to be set aside under Section 34(2)(iii).

The appellant filed three commercial appeals under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, challenging orders of the Commercial Court in proceedings concerning an arbitral award and, in COMAP No. 113/2025, the award itself

At the hearing, counsel for both sides submitted that the appeals were covered by the High Court’s decision in COMAP No. 107/2025, dated 12 February 2026, which had set aside the award and permitted the parties to commence arbitration afresh

1. Whether the three appeals should be disposed of in terms of the judgment in COMAP No. 107/2025, given the parties’ joint submission that it covered the appeals.

2. Whether the impugned orders and award should be set aside, with liberty to commence arbitral proceedings afresh, in accordance with that judgment.

Section 34(2)(iii) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 permits an arbitral award to be set aside where a party was not given proper notice of the appointment of the arbitrator or the arbitral proceedings, or was otherwise unable to present its case.

The cited decision also held that failure to afford a proper hearing may breach natural justice and constitute patent illegality, and that an order failing to address the grounds for setting aside an award is unsustainable.

The Court did not separately re-examine the underlying arbitral record in these appeals. It accepted the parties’ common submission that the appeals were governed by COMAP No. 107/2025 and adopted that decision’s reasoning: the arbitral order sheet showed no proper hearing, leaving the appellant unable to present his case, and the challenged order did not address the grounds raised against the award.

On that basis, the Court disposed of the appeals on the same terms.

Accordingly, the impugned orders and arbitral award were set aside, and the parties were left at liberty to commence arbitral proceedings afresh, if so advised.