(A Lot) More on Reciprocal Arrangement Countries under the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996

Recently, we did a post in this blog titled "(Nothing?) More on Reciprocal Arrangement Countries under the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996" where we discussed another post titled "Reciprocal Arrangement Countries under Section 44 of the 1996 Act" in this blog penned about four years back on the countries which the Government has notified as having made reciprocal provisions for the enforcement of the New York Convention.

To recap, Section 44 of the 1996 Act defines the term "foreign award" for the purposes of Chapter I, Part II of 1996 Act to mean, among other things, an award made in one of the territories to which the New York Convention, 1958 (Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, 1958) applied and the Central Government had notified that such a territory made reciprocal provisions for enforcement of awards made in India [S. 44(b)]. 

The territories notified under Section 44(b) of the 1996 Act: Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, Australia, China, Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR, and Mauritius. The notifications (provided in the previous post) are available here. 

We had noted in the previous post that by virtue of Section 82(2)(b) of the 1996 Act {which reads: "(2) Notwithstanding such repeal-...(b) all rules made and notifications published, under the said enactments [Arbitration (Protocol and Convention) Act, 1937, Arbitration Act, 1940, and Foreign Awards (Recognition and Enforcement) Act, 1961] shall, to the extent to which they are not repugnant to this Act, be deemed respectively to have been made or issued under this Act."} notifications issued under Section 2 of the Foreign Awards (Recognition and Enforcement Act, 1961 are deemed to have been issued under the 1996 Act. Section 2(b) contains provisions virtually identical to Section 44(b). Section 2(b) reads: "In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires," foreign award" means an award on differences between persons arising out of legal relationships, whether contractual or not, considered as commercial under the law in force in India, made on or after the 11th day of October, 1960 -... (b) in one of such territories as the Central Government, being satisfied that reciprocal provisions have been made, may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare to be territories to which the said Convention applies."

We had further noted that this blogger had filed an RTI application with the Ministry of Law and Justice seeking notifications issued under the 1961 Act but the PIO had given the notifications under the 1996 Act (See the reply of the CPIO). Thereafter, this blogger had filed an RTI Appeal, to which the Appellate Authority issued the following order dt. 18.01.2018: 

"Please refer to your appeal dated 23.12.2017 received on 10.01.2018 regarding furnishing of information sought under RTI Act, 2005.

2. Your appeal has been examined and it is found that CPIO has provided you the information in respect of notifications issued under the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996 in place of the Foreign Awards (Recognition & Enforcement), 1961. Therefore, CPIO is directed to provide information within two weeks in respect of notifications issued under section 2 of the Foreign Awards (Recognition & Enforcement), 1961.

3. The Appeal is disposed of accordingly."

Vide Reply dt. 24.01.2018, the CPIO gave information on about 11 notifications issued under Section 2 of the 1961 Act. The entire sequence of events pertaining to the RTI application is narrated above to point out the efficacy of the RTI Act and the spirit in which the officials of the Ministry of Law and Justice disposed of the RTI application. 

The notifications provided now by the Ministry covers several territories mentioned in the previous post. The list of territories and the notification details are provided here. 

Sl. No.	Territories Covered	Notification No.	Notifying Ministry	Notification Date
1	Poland	S.O. 1238	Commerce	29/02/68
2	Greece, Equador, Bulgaria, Rumania, and Norway	S.O. 428 (E)	Foreign trade	14/06/72
3	Japan, Phillippines, USA, Tanzania, The Netherlands, Thailand, Sweden, and Austria	S.O. 732 (E)	Foreign trade	24/11/72
4	Nigeria, Tunisia, Ghana and Morrocco	S.O. 282 (E)	Commerce	16/05/73
5	UK	S.O. 4302	Commerce	25/10/76
6	Botswana, Cuba, Malagasy Republic, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, German Democratic Republic, Denmark and Egypt	S.O. 42 (E)	Commerce	07/01/78
7	Syria	S.O. 2920	Commerce, Civil Supplies & Cooperation	25/09/78
8	Belgium	S.O. 290 (E)	Commerce and Civil Supplies	28/04/80
9	San Marino	S.O. 84 (E)	Commerce	03/02/83
10	Central African Republic	S.O. 85 (E)	Commerce	03/02/83
11	Kuwait	S.O. 86 (E)	Commerce	03/02/83

The PIO has not provided notifications of the following territories: Chile, Czechslovak Socialist Republic, Federal Republic of Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Italy, Republic of Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and USSR. The CPIO had clarified in his reply that he was able to provide notifications as were available with his Section.

Belgium was not in the original list of territories noted in popular commentaries on Indian arbitration law but it appears that Belgium is also a notified territory. Hence authors of commentaries may take note of this add to the list of reciprocal territories notified. 

The above listed notifications can be accessed from here.