Arbitration – Confidentiality – Sealing Order – Precautionary measures
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Confidentiality of Arbitration – Sealing Order – Singapore Court of Appeal – salutary Advise to the Advocates and the litigants
Essential to take precautionary measures in right earnest and in the first instance – Article of Mr.Swee Siang Boey and Mr.Armaan Singh on the analysis of the order of Singapore Court of Appeal on the application of GOI for sealing order for confidentiality of arbitration proceedings
Well known case of Antrix Vs Devas – Antrix owned by the Government of India had terminated agreement with Devas. Deutsche Telekom AG incorporated in Germany and shareholder of Devas had initiated arbitration proceedings in Switzerland against termination and obtained Award. Thereafter, DT obtained an ex parte order of Court granting leave to enforce the award in Singapore.
The application of GOI to set aside leave order was dismissed by Singapore. Appeal was filed in the Singapore Court of Appeal and also applied for sealing order to protect confidentiality of Arbitration.
In this particular, the information relating to the Arbitration was already disclosed in Singapore and abroad.
The Court of Appeal held that there was insufficient basis to override the strong interest in open justice in curia proceedings.
The distinguished authors have, therefore, rightly advised to take precautionary measures not to release information to the public for confidentiality of arbitration proceedings.
Confidentiality of arbitration proceedings may not always be protected – The Republic of India v Deutsche Telkom AG [2023] SGCA(I) 4 – Lexology
