More Stories

Informist, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – In a relief to Bharat Forge Ltd. and its arm BF Infrastructure Ltd., a division bench of the Delhi High Court has upheld its single judge's order that set aside an INR 770 million arbitral award in favour of Tarsem Jain, a former global mining advisor appointed by Bharat Forge in connection with a share purchase agreement. The high court said that the participation of Bharat Forge and its arm in the arbitral proceedings did not ratify Jain's unilateral appointment as arbitrator, which was contrary to the share purchase agreement between the parties and the statutory provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The court also said Bharat Forge and its arm participated in the arbitration under protest.

 

Under the share purchase agreement and the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, in the absence of consent between the parties on appointment of an arbitrator, the court was required to appoint the arbitrator, the bench of Justice Avneesh Jhingan and Justice Shail Jain said. As Jain was the party invoking arbitration, the petitioner was required to approach the court under the 1996 Act for appointment of the arbitrator and not vice versa, it said. The court upheld the single judge's order that Jain unilaterally appointed the sole arbitrator and hence, the arbitral award was a nullity.

 

The case stems from a share purchase agreement signed in 2010. Under the agreement, 100% of the equity share capital of Coal Columbia SAS, Mines and Minerals Company of Columbia SAS and Multitex Africa SA was to be transferred to Aggressive Projects Pvt. Ltd., while 90% of the nominal value of the equity shares of the latter was to be transferred to BF Infrastructure. Following the transaction, Jain was appointed as the 'Advisor - Global Mining' by Bharat Forge.

 

Subsequently, a dispute arose between the parties, following which BF Infrastructure terminated the share purchase agreement in 2012. Consequently, Bharat Forge terminated Jain's engagement. Jain invoked arbitration in 2013. The arbitral tribunal issued an award of INR 770 million in his favour in 2019. A single judge of the high court set aside the arbitral award in 2025, which Jain challenged before a division bench.

 

Wednesday, Bharat Forge's shares ended 2.0% lower at INR 1,841.80 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.