Freedom to choose seats of arbitration is essential to party autonomy in international commercial arbitration. In Arif Azim Company Limited v Micromax Informatics FZE, the Supreme Court first upheld the parties’ rights to choose arbitral seats. It then applied the Shashoua principle to recognise a designated venue as the seat of arbitration, if a supranational set of rules accompanied it and there was no contrary indication.
Arif Azim Company, the petitioner, an Afghanistan-based company, and Micromax Informatics FZE, the respondent, a UAE-based entity, entered into a consumer distributorship agreement. The agreement designated Dubai as the venue for arbitration and the governing law as that of the UAE. It granted Dubai courts non-exclusive jurisdiction. Following disputes, the petitioner invoked arbitration under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, applying for the appointment of an arbitrator under section 11(6).