New Delhi: Singapore’s Court of Appeal on Tuesday (April 8) has overturned an international arbitration award related to a government railway contract, citing significant portions being “copied and pasted” from two similar Indian arbitration awards. The court’s 40-page ruling highlighted that nearly half of the award’s 451 paragraphs were copied verbatim from the parallel awards, The Indian Express reported.The decision centered around the conduct of former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, who presided over all the three awards. The court found that Misra’s actions created an appearance of bias and breached natural justice principles. The tribunal, comprising Misra and two other retired Indian judges, failed to independently assess the parties’ arguments, instead relying heavily on previous awards, the report mentioned.The dispute involved Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL), a special-purpose vehicle under the Ministry of Railways, and a consortium of three companies managing India’s Dedicated Freight Corridors. The arbitration began in December 2021, as per IE.The Court of Appeal’s decision to set aside the award and name the arbitrators is unusual in such cases. The Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC) had previously set aside the award in 2024 but did not name those involved.With respect to Justice Misra, the SICC was quoted as saying by IE: “With regret, I conclude that the assertion of apparent bias against Judge C, a highly experienced judge and arbitrator, is well-founded.” The SICC found merit in the consortium’s allegations against Justice Misra’s use of content from the parallel awards as evidence of “pre-judging a case.”The Court of Appeal, the highest Court in Singapore, is headed by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon.