Supreme Court upholds a foreign award given through a two-tier arbitration procedure

Brief Facts

Centrotrade Minerals and Metal Inc. (“Appellant”) and Hindustan Copper Ltd. (“Respondent”) entered into a contract for sale of 15,500 DMT of copper concentrate by the Appellant to the Respondent. The dispute resolution clause of the contract provided, in relevant part, as follows:

“14. All disputes and difference whatsoever arising between the parties…shall be settled by arbitration in India through the arbitration panel of the Indian Council of Arbitration in accordance with the rules of arbitration of the Indian Council of Arbitration. If either party is in disagreement with the arbitration result in India, either party will have the right to appeal to a second arbitrator in London, U.K. in accordance with the rules of conciliation and arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in effect on the date hereof and the result of this second arbitration will be binding on both the parties. Judgment upon the award may be entered in any Court of Jurisdiction”.

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