In Brief
P.E.C. Limited chartered a vessel to transport chickpeas from Australia to India under a Charter Party dated 20 April 2000. A dispute arose over demurrage charges. The Respondent secured an arbitral award of US $150,362.18. P.E.C. challenged enforcement in the High Court and then Supreme Court, arguing the application was defective because the arbitration agreement was not produced when filing the enforcement petition, and that it had not signed the Charter Party. The Supreme Court held that the word "shall" in Section 47 must be read as "may"; thus non-production of the agreement at the initial filing stage does not require dismissal. Further, a valid arbitration agreement exists even without a party's signature; under English law, the governing law, signature is not required, and the agreement can be inferred from conduct and correspondence. The appeal was dismissed and the High Court's judgment upholding enforcement was affirmed."
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