Appellate rights in award execution remain confined to express statutory grounds; appointment of a receiver was not separately appealable.

Section 36 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 treats an arbitral award as a decree only for enforcement, and that legal fiction does not expand appellate rights. The Arbitration and Conciliation Act is a self-contained code, so appeals from orders passed in execution of an award lie only where expressly provided. Section 13 of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 does not create a wider appeal route beyond the appealable orders under Order XLIII CPC and Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act. An order appointing a receiver in execution of an award did not fall within those categories, and the appeal was therefore not maintainable.

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Issues: Whether an appeal lies against an order appointing a receiver in execution of an arbitral award, and whether such an order is appealable either under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 or under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.

Analysis: The order under challenge was passed in execution of an arbitral award under Section 36 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The legal fiction in Section 36 treats the award as a decree only for enforcement and cannot be extended to create a broader right of appeal. The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 is a self-contained code, and appeals from orders passed in proceedings under it lie only where expressly provided. Section 13 of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 does not enlarge the appellate route beyond the orders specifically made appealable under Order XLIII of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 and Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The impugned order did not fall within the categories enumerated in Section 37, and the reliance on Section 9 was rejected because the stage for a Section 9 remedy had passed.

Conclusion: The appeal was not maintainable.

Final Conclusion: Orders passed in execution of an arbitral award are not appealable merely because execution proceeds in a decree-like manner; appellate jurisdiction remains confined to the specific statutory grounds of appeal.

Ratio Decidendi: The statutory fiction under Section 36 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 is limited to enforcement and does not create an appealable decree, so an order in execution of an arbitral award is appealable only if it falls within the express appeal provisions of the governing statute.

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