New Delhi, Nov. 24 -- The Supreme Court has ruled that Indian courts have no jurisdiction to appoint an arbitrator in a foreign-seated arbitration, if the principal contract is ruled by foreign laws, even when one of the parties or both the parties are Indian entities.

A bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Atul S. Chandurkar dismissed a plea seeking the appointment of an arbitrator in a dispute arising from a Buyer-Seller Agreement (BSA) dated June 6, 2019 which designated Benin as the seat of arbitration and Beninese law as governing law.

The petitioner, Balaji Steel, had argued that subsequent ancillary contracts contained India-seated arbitration clauses and sought to rely on the Group of Companies (GoC) doctrine to bring the disput...