Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

India: Supreme Court settles forum for arbitral mandate extensions and substitutions—principal civil court/High Court (original side); section 11 court functus officio; section 42 inapplicable

Published on: 09 March 2026

Published by a LexisNexis Arbitration expert

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Article summary

Jagdeep Chowgule v Sheela Chowgule and others 2026 INSC 92; 2026 SCC OnLine SC 124

What are the practical implications of the case?

This ruling has tangible consequences for arbitration users and counsel in India. It articulates a single, consistent position on forum competence and removes earlier ambiguity.

Every request to prolong an arbitral tribunal’s mandate—as well as any plea to replace an arbitrator—must be filed only before the Principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction (ordinarily the Commercial Court) or a High Court with ordinary original civil jurisdiction, in line with section 2(1)(e) of the Act, regardless of how the tribunal came to be formed.
The Court has also settled a long-standing divergence among High Courts. Previously, practitioners were unsure whether such extension motions should track the route of appointment under section 42 of the Act; some benches held that if a High Court had appointed the arbitrator, the extension had to be sought there too. The Supreme Court has now disapproved that view, enabling parties to approach the competent Civil Court with confidence.

In short, the pathway is uniform and predictable, and parties no longer need to revisit the appointing forum to secure an extension...

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