Interim orders under Section 17(2) of the A&C Act stand merged and unenforceable upon passing of a Final Award.

The Decree Holder (DH) filed a petition under Section 17(2) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, seeking enforcement of an Interim Order dated 06.11.2025 passed by a Sole Arbitrator

The interim order directed the Judgment Debtor (JD) to deposit 81.25% of monthly mesne profits (approx. Rs. 2.97 Crores) for the period of 01.11.2024 to 31.10.2025

During the pendency of these enforcement proceedings, the Arbitral Tribunal pronounced its Final Award on 02.03.2026

The Final Award allowed Claim No. 2, directing the JD to pay the same 81.25% share of mesne profits starting from 01.11.2024 until the handing over of possession

1. Whether a petition under Section 17(2) for enforcement of an interim order remains maintainable after the pronouncement of the Final Award, especially when the interim directions are incorporated into the said Award

The court primarily applied Section 17 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (as amended in 2015 and 2019), which empowers an Arbitral Tribunal to grant interim measures during proceedings

Section 17(2) creates a legal fiction whereby such orders are deemed orders of a Civil Court and are enforceable under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908

The court relied on Alka Chandewar v. Shamshul Ishrar Khan (2017) 16 SCC 119, which established that Section 17(2) provides a "complete solution" for the enforcement of interim orders

The court further considered Section 36, which stipulates that a final award can only be enforced as a decree after the expiry of the three-month challenge period under Section 34(3)

The Court reasoned that while Section 17(2) provides an independent right to enforce interim orders, the power of a Tribunal to grant such measures is temporally restricted to the pendency of arbitral proceedings

In this case, the substantive directions of the Interim Order dated 06.11.2025 were "subsumed and merged" into the Final Award dated 02.03.2026

The Court observed that allowing enforcement of the interim order at this stage would bypass the statutory safeguards of Section 36, which mandates a waiting period before a final award becomes enforceable as a decree

To maintain hormonal operation between Section 17 and Section 36, the Court held that once interim directions are incorporated into the Final Award, the enforcement must follow the regime applicable to Awards rather than parallel proceedings under Section 17(2)

The Court dismissed the petition but granted the Decree Holder liberty to avail legal remedies for the enforcement of the Final Award in accordance with the law