Mumbai Metro One
HC to stay INR 11.7 bln arbitral award to RInfra JV if MMRDA deposits money
This story was originally published at 21:11 IST on 10 June 2025
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NEW DELHI – The Bombay High Court on Tuesday ruled that it will stay the execution of an arbitral award favouring Reliance Infrastructure Ltd.'s joint venture Mumbai Metro One Pvt. Ltd. if the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority deposits the entire award amount of INR 11.69 billion with the registry of court on or before Jul. 15. The high court rejected Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority's prayer for unconditional stay of the award.
In essence, the arbitral award money will be kept deposited with the high court's registry till the time it hears the challenge by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority against Mumbai Metro One. Subsequently, Mumbai Metro One will not be able to proceed with the execution of its arbitration award against Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. If Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority succeeds in its petition, the deposited money will be returned back to it, else the amount will be given to Mumbai Metro One.
The high court said that routinely granting a stay and that too without any deposit would run counter to the explicit legislative intervention that was made by Parliament to give teeth and relevance to arbitral awards. "In these circumstances, I am not inclined to accept the request made on behalf of MMRDA to stay the impugned award without any deposit being ordered," said Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan.
The case has its genesis from the arbitral award passed by a three-member arbitral tribunal in favour of Mumbai Metro One, a joint venture between Reliance Infrastructure that holds 74% stake and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority that holds 26% stake. The award was passed by the tribunal in 2023, and was corrected in 2024.
The disputes and differences between the parties relate to the development, design, engineering, financing, procurement, construction, operation and maintenance of a mass rapid transit system. Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority had moved the high court to challenge the arbitral award. The petitioner had also filed an application seeking a stay of the execution of the arbitral award. Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority strenuously urged that no deposit should be directed for grant of stay, but Mumbai Metro One contended that the conventional approach of a full deposit must follow should there be any stay on execution.
On Tuesday, shares of Reliance Infrastructure ended 3.7% higher at INR 404.60 on the National Stock Exchange. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Ashish Shirke
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