Supreme Court dismisses Centre's appeal, allows enforcement of Vedanta arbitration awards worth $99 million

Key facts

• The Supreme Court on November 2, 2026 dismissed the Union government's appeal against a Delhi High Court order allowing Vedanta Ltd and Ravva Oil (Singapore) Pvt Ltd to enforce foreign arbitration awards involving claims of $99 million.
• A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Manmohan found no error in the Delhi High Court's July 1, 2026 judgment rejecting the Centre's objections to enforcement of awards passed in 2004 and 2016 by an arbitral tribunal seated in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• The dispute arose from a 1994 production-sharing contract between the government and a consortium of ONGC, Videocon Petroleum, Ravva Oil and Cairn Energy for developing the Ravva oilfield in the Krishna-Godavari basin, over the ONGC Carry accounting issue.
• The 2004 partial award survived challenges in Malaysian courts, upheld by the Malaysian Federal Court in October 2011, and the final award of October 26, 2016 was upheld by the Malaysian Federal Court on February 28, 2019.
• The Delhi High Court had held enforcement proceedings were within limitation and directed release of bank guarantees furnished by the companies within eight weeks.