The Supreme Court has held that the government cannot claim immunity from the application of law to a contract merely because one of the parties to it is the President of India.
‘We are of the clear opinion that a contract entered into in the name of the President of India, cannot and will not create an immunity against the application of any statutory prescription imposing conditions on parties to an agreement, when the government chooses to enter into a contract,” a Bench of Chief Justice of India and Justice P.S. Narasimha held in a recent judgment.
Moreover, when tasked with the job to find an arbitrator, the state should ensure that the person it chooses is an “impartial and independent” adjudicator with no professional ties to it, past or present.
