Section 37 Arbitration Appeals: Which Orders Can Be Appealed and How

The closed list of appealable orders

Section 37(1) says an appeal lies from the following orders of a court, and from no others:

• refusing to refer the parties to arbitration under Section 8 (an order that does refer them is not appealable);
• granting or refusing to grant any interim measure under Section 9;
• setting aside or refusing to set aside an arbitral award under Section 34.

Section 37(2) adds an appeal to a court against two orders of the arbitral tribunal itself: an order accepting a plea under Section 16(2) or 16(3) that the tribunal has no jurisdiction or is exceeding its authority, and an order granting or refusing an interim measure under Section 17.

The gaps matter as much as the list. An order of a tribunal rejecting a jurisdictional objection is not appealable at that stage; the objection is kept for a challenge to the final award under Section 34. An order referring parties to arbitration cannot be appealed under Section 37 either. Where no appeal lies, a writ petition is rarely the answer: the High Courts entertain writs against arbitral orders only in exceptional cases of patent lack of inherent jurisdiction.

Which court hears the appeal

The appeal goes to the court authorised by law to hear appeals from the court that passed the order. In practice that depends on where the Section 34 or Section 9 petition was decided.

• In Delhi, a petition decided by a Commercial Division single judge of the Delhi High Court on its original side goes in appeal to a Division Bench of that High Court, its Commercial Appellate Division.
• A petition decided by a District Judge or a Commercial Court in Delhi, Haryana, Punjab or Chandigarh goes in appeal to the High Court with jurisdiction over that court: the Delhi High Court or the Punjab & Haryana High Court.
• Where the dispute is a commercial dispute of specified value, the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 also governs the appeal, but Section 13(1A) of that Act confirms that appeals in arbitration matters lie only against the orders Section 37 lists.

Section 37(3) bars a second appeal. The only further step is a Special Leave Petition to the Supreme Court under Article 136, which is discretionary.

Limitation for a Section 37 appeal

The Arbitration Act does not itself fix a time for a Section 37 appeal. In Government of Maharashtra v. Borse Brothers Engineers and Contractors (2021), the Supreme Court settled the position:

• where the dispute is a commercial dispute of specified value, the appeal must be filed within 60 days under Section 13(1A) of the Commercial Courts Act;
• otherwise, the Limitation Act applies: 90 days for an appeal to the High Court from a lower court (Article 116), and 30 days for an intra-court appeal within the High Court (Article 117).

The same judgment held that delay beyond these periods is to be condoned only by way of exception and not as a rule, because speed is the whole point of arbitration. A party that waits for a certified copy without reason, or lets a file move slowly between departments, should expect the Court to refuse condonation.

How far the appeal court will look into the award

An appeal against a Section 34 order is not a fresh look at the arbitrator's findings. In MMTC Ltd. v. Vedanta Ltd. (2019) the Supreme Court held that the appeal court's power cannot travel beyond the restrictions on the Section 34 court. It asks whether the Section 34 court applied those limits correctly, not whether it would have read the contract or the evidence differently.

Those limits were narrowed by the 2015 amendments. An award can be set aside for conflict with the public policy of India in the restricted sense the amended Section 34 now gives (fraud or corruption, contravention of the fundamental policy of Indian law, conflict with the most basic notions of morality or justice), or, for domestic awards, for patent illegality appearing on the face of the award. Ssangyong Engineering v. NHAI (2019) explained that a mere erroneous application of the law or reappreciation of evidence is not a ground.

On whether a court can change an award rather than set it aside, a Constitution Bench in Gayatri Balasamy v. ISG Novasoft Technologies (2025) recognised a limited power to modify: severing an invalid part from a valid part, correcting clerical, computational or typographical errors, and in some cases adjusting post-award interest. It does not allow the court to rewrite the award on the merits.

Appeals against interim orders under Section 9 and Section 17

Appeals against interim measures follow the ordinary rule for discretionary orders: the appeal court does not substitute its own discretion merely because it might have decided differently. It interferes where the order was arbitrary, perverse, ignored settled principles such as a prima facie case, balance of convenience and irreparable harm, or was passed without jurisdiction.

Speed matters even more here. An interim order stopping encashment of a performance security, restraining termination of a contract or securing an amount in dispute can decide the commercial outcome before the arbitration is over. These appeals are usually mentioned for early listing, and the papers should be ready to file within days of the order. Our injunction practice advises on the same principles in civil suits.

Stay of the award while the appeal is pending

Filing a Section 34 petition does not by itself stop the award being enforced: since 2015, Section 36 requires a separate application for stay, and for a money award the court normally imposes conditions such as a deposit or security. When the Section 34 court refuses to set aside the award and the losing party appeals, it must again seek a stay from the appeal court, which may continue or vary the deposit condition.

Before filing, we check four points with the client:

1. 1.Is the order one of those listed in Section 37, or is the right remedy different?
2. 2.Which limitation period applies, and when does it end on the facts?
3. 3.Does the challenge raise a ground the amended Section 34 still recognises, or only a disagreement with the arbitrator's view?
4. 4.Is a stay or deposit needed to protect the client's position while the appeal is heard?

For disputes that have not yet reached arbitration, see our pages on corporate litigation and appeals and revisions.