Enforcement of Foreign Arbitration Award

Bhandari Law and Partners represents clients seeking to enforce foreign arbitral awards in Nepal. Nepal is a party to the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards — still the single most effective instrument in the world for cross-border award enforcement — having acceded in 1998 with both reciprocity and commercial reservations. That means a foreign award is enforceable in Nepal, but only once it clears the conditions set out in Nepal's own domestic law, the Arbitration Act, 2055 (1999).

The Legal Framework

The reciprocity reservation is the threshold issue in almost every foreign award enforcement matter we handle. Nepal only enforces foreign arbitral awards if the country where the award was rendered also enforces Nepalese awards. That sounds like a technicality until it actually decides a case — India is a party to the New York Convention, but has not notified Nepal as a reciprocating territory under Indian law, and in Sanghi Brothers (Indore) Pvt. Ltd. v. High Court, Patan, Nepal's Supreme Court upheld a refusal to enforce an Indian arbitral award purely on that basis. By contrast, in the first successful recognition of a foreign award in Nepal, the High Court enforced an ICC Tribunal award in a case involving Singapore, precisely because both Singapore and Nepal are signatories to the New York Convention with functioning reciprocity between them. In other words, where an award was made matters just as much as what the award says. 

Beyond reciprocity, an applicant generally needs to show the award is final and binding under the law of the country where it was issued, that it was made in accordance with a valid arbitration agreement, and that the losing party received proper notice of the arbitration proceedings. A 2025 amendment to the Arbitration Act also introduced a formal bar on re-examination of evidence during enforcement proceedings, restricting Nepalese courts to procedural and jurisdictional review rather than a fresh look at the underlying merits — which, in practice, narrows the grounds on which a losing party can realistically resist enforcement.

The Enforcement Process

A party seeking enforcement of a foreign award applies to the High Court with jurisdiction over the award debtor, per the Arbitration Act. The application needs to be supported by the original or certified copy of the arbitral award, the original or certified copy of the arbitration agreement, and a certified Nepali translation of both documents where they were issued in a foreign language. If the High Court is satisfied that the statutory conditions are met, it forwards the award for enforcement to the District Court, which then acts as the actual court of enforcement — treating the award, once cleared, much like a domestic judgment for enforcement purposes. 

There's also a timing element worth understanding going in: if the award debtor doesn't voluntarily comply within 45 days of receiving the award, the award creditor generally has 30 days after that non-compliance date to file for enforcement, so this isn't a process that can be left indefinitely once an award is in hand.

What We Do

Enforcement Applications

We prepare and file enforcement applications before the High Court, ensuring the award, the arbitration agreement, and any required translations meet the documentary standard the court expects.

Reciprocity and Jurisdictional Analysis

Before advising a client to pursue enforcement, we assess whether reciprocity genuinely exists between Nepal and the jurisdiction where the award was made — a question that, as the case law shows, can decide the outcome before the merits are ever reached.

Representation Through to District Court Enforcement

We carry a matter through from the High Court's review to actual enforcement at the District Court, so a favorable award translates into an enforceable outcome rather than a paper win.

Defending Against Enforcement

We also act for clients on the other side of these matters, opposing enforcement of a foreign award where genuine statutory grounds exist to resist it.

Annulment and Vacatur

Beyond enforcement, we represent clients seeking to annul or vacate arbitral awards in Nepal, where the statutory grounds for setting aside an award are met.

Who We Represent

We act for both award creditors seeking to enforce a foreign arbitral award in Nepal and award debtors seeking to resist enforcement or challenge an award's validity — representing clients across cross-border commercial disputes, joint ventures, construction and infrastructure contracts, and foreign investment matters where arbitration was the agreed mechanism for resolving disagreement.

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