Arbitration agreement cannot be acted upon unless stamp duty is paid: SC

VR Commodities Private Limited Vs Norvic Shipping Asia Pte. Ltd. (Andhra Pradesh High Court) With respect to the validity of the arbitration clause in an unstamped instrument, the Supreme Court relied on sections 33 and 35 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899. Section 33 of the legislation relates to the examination and impounding of instruments and section 35 provides that instruments not duly stamped are inadmissible in evidence and cannot be acted upon. The Supreme Court rejected the application of doctrine of separability to an unstamped instrument containing an arbitration clause, only for the r...