On 10 April 2024, a three-judge bench allowed DMRC's curative petition and set aside an arbitral award that, with interest, had swelled to about ₹8,000 crore, holding that the Court's earlier interference had restored a patently illegal award and caused a miscarriage of justice.
On 11 August 2023, a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court restored an arbitrator's award of 18% compound interest after the Allahabad High Court had reduced it to 9% simple interest under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996. The ruling reaffirms that the Section 34 court has no power to modify; it may only set aside. Two years on, the 5-judge Constitution Bench in Gayatri Balasamy v. ISG Novasoft has qualified — not overruled — the proposition. A close reading of the holding, its lineage from Associate Builders through M. Hakeem, and the narrow modification corridor that Gayatri Balasamy has opened.