APPLICABILITY OF THE PRINCIPLE OF RES JUDICATA IN ARBITRATION PROCEEDINGS.
In the realm of arbitration, it is an irrefutable fact that there can be ‘Multiplicity’ with respect to the same contract i.e. multiple invocations, multiple references, multiple Arbitral Tribunals, multiple Awards and multiple challenges, between the same parties, in respect of the same contract or the same series of contracts. When such multiplicity give rise to multiple awards, can one award bar another proceedings from deciding a similar issue? Would the principle of Res judicata be applied to a subsequent arbitration proceedings deciding on a similar issue.? Although, section 19 of the A&C, Act 1996 does not bound the Arbitral tribunal by the principles of CPC, its principles can be indisputably applied as affirmed in many precedents. Section 11 of the CPC stipulates the principles of Res Judicata. It springs from the latin phrase Nemo debet bis vexari pro una et eadem causa which means “no man should be vexed twice for the same cause.” This principle is widely followed in civ...