Investment Treaties and the Role of the Judiciary: Mapping Indian Judiciary’s Approach Post 2015 Model BIT

Judiciary, as an organ of the state, plays a key role in investment-related matters. The proceedings related to investment treaty disputes before domestic courts can have significant implications on the conduct and outcome of investment arbitrations. It is, therefore, important to know how judicial decisions have dealt with disputes involving India’s BITs. This chapter examines the approach of the Indian judiciary while dealing with anti-arbitration injunctions in investment arbitration proceedings. It also examines the role of the judiciary in the enforcement of arbitral awards, specifically in the context of the “commercial reservation” that India has taken in the New York Convention of 1958. Towards this end, the chapter chronicles the approach of the judiciary since the adoption of the 2015 Model BIT, and the revisions that are called for.