The Supreme Court has held that the 2015 amendment to Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 will apply only to Section 34 applications that have been made after the date of the amendment.

"Section 34 as amended will apply only to Section 34 applications that have been made to the Court on or after 23.10.2015, irrespective of the fact that the arbitration proceedings may have commenced prior to that."

In the present case, the Supreme Court was hearing the contentions between the parties where one party challenged the findings by the High Court that in International Commercial Arbitrations the Award could not be challenged under S.34 of the Act on the grounds of patent illegality since post the 2015 Amendment, patent illegality could not be used as a ground to challenge award in international commercial arbitration matters.