Bombay High Court: Determinable Contracts Cannot Be Specifically Enforced Under Section 9 of Arbitration Act.
the Bombay High Court has held that contracts which are determinable by nature cannot be specifically enforced through interim relief under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The judgment reinforces a settled legal position—if a contract includes a valid termination clause and that termination has been acted upon, courts will be slow to interfere with it through interim measures. the Court Said A Division Bench led by Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice M.S. Karnik observed that the contract between the parties was "determinable by its nature" and therefore, any attempt to seek its specific enforcement was untenable in law. “Having considered the relevant clauses of the agreement, it does appear that the contract was determinable by its nature by virtue of the termination clause therein... Therefore, the agreements were determinable by nature and could never be sought to be specifically enforced as is prayed for,” the Court noted...