Foreign-seated arbitration with emergency relief can exclude Section 9 court intervention, especially after an emergency arbitrator's rejection.

A Section 9 petition was held not maintainable where the arbitration agreement provided for a Japan-seated arbitration under JCAA Rules with a complete mechanism for emergency and interim relief, implying exclusion of recourse to Part I of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act. The applicants had already invoked emergency arbitration and received a reasoned rejection, and no fresh change in circumstances was pleaded to justify a renewed Section 9 request. The court also treated the petition as an impermissible attempt to appeal against the emergency arbitrator's order. The distinction from cases allowing Section 9 was that those clauses did not exclude court intervention and, in some instances, expressly permitted it.

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Issues: Whether a petition under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 was maintainable when the parties had agreed to a foreign-seated arbitration governed by JCAA Rules providing for emergency and interim measures, and the applicants had already invoked and lost before the emergency arbitrator.

Analysis: The arbitration clause provided for arbitration in Japan under the JCAA Rules, and the rules contained a complete mechanism for emergency and interim relief. The parties had therefore contracted into a regime that excluded recourse to Part I of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 by implication. The applicants had already invoked emergency arbitration, obtained a detailed reasoned rejection, and there was no pleaded change in circumstance to justify a fresh invocation of Section 9. The petition was also in the nature of an appeal against the emergency arbitrator's order, which is not permissible in a Section 9 proceeding. The distinction drawn from cases where Section 9 remained available was that those clauses did not exclude court intervention and, in some instances, positively permitted it.

Conclusion: The petition under Section 9 was not maintainable and was dismissed.

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