The award is signed and delivered

The tribunal makes a written, signed award stating its date and the place of arbitration, and delivers a signed copy to each party under section 38. Receipt of that copy starts the sixty-day period in section 42(2). Section 39 makes the award final and binding, subject only to a challenge under the Act. Unless the parties agreed otherwise or the award directs otherwise, a money award carries interest from its date until payment at two per cent a year above the Bangladesh Bank rate.

Both sides should record exactly when and how the award arrived, by courier, by hand or by e-mail.

Where: Arbitral tribunal (seat in Bangladesh) · Time: Award date · Law: s.38(4)-(6) Arbitration Act 2001; s.39 Arbitration Act 2001; s.42(2) Arbitration Act 2001 · Documents: Signed award, Courier receipt, e-mail or acknowledgement showing the date of receipt

Tip: Write down the date the signed award was received and keep the envelope or e-mail. Every later deadline turns on it.

Correction, interpretation or additional award

Within fourteen days of receiving the award, a party can ask the tribunal to correct computation, clerical or typographical errors, to interpret a specific point, or to make an additional award on a claim it left out. The tribunal decides a correction within fourteen days and an additional award within sixty days, and the result becomes part of the award. The Act does not clearly say whether such a request restarts the sixty days to set aside, so the safer course is to file any challenge within sixty days of receiving the original award.

Where: Arbitral tribunal (seat in Bangladesh) · Time: 14 days to request; up to 60 days for an additional award · Law: s.40 Arbitration Act 2001 · Documents: Request under s.40, Corrected or additional award

Confirm the award is international and seated here

Section 42(2) covers only awards in an international commercial arbitration held in Bangladesh. That means a commercial dispute where at least one party is a foreign national or resident, a company incorporated or managed abroad, or a foreign government, under section 2(c). A purely domestic award is challenged before the District Judge under section 42(1). An award made at a seat outside Bangladesh cannot be set aside here at all; the High Court Division confirmed in 2026 that a Bangladeshi court has no such power.

Setting aside international arbitral award cases in the wrong forum wastes the sixty days.

Where: Applicant's lawyer · Time: 1-5 days · Law: s.2(c) Arbitration Act 2001; s.3 Arbitration Act 2001; s.42(1) and (2) Arbitration Act 2001; Arbitration Appeal No. 08 of 2025 (HCD, 09.07.2026) · Documents: Arbitration agreement, Award showing the place of arbitration, Corporate documents of each party

Test the award against the section 43 grounds

Section 43 sets a closed list. The applicant must prove incapacity of a party, an invalid arbitration agreement, lack of proper notice or inability to present its case, an award beyond the submission, or a tribunal or procedure not in line with the agreement or the Act. Separately, the court may act if the dispute is not arbitrable, the award is prima facie opposed to Bangladeshi law, conflicts with public policy, or was induced or affected by fraud or corruption.

A complaint that the tribunal weighed the evidence wrongly is not a ground, and the lawyer should say so frankly.

Where: Applicant's lawyer · Time: 1-3 weeks · Law: s.43(1)(a)(i)-(v) Arbitration Act 2001; s.43(1)(b)(i)-(iv) Arbitration Act 2001 · Documents: Award, Arbitral record, Note of potential grounds

Prepare the application and supporting record

The lawyer drafts an Arbitration Application under sections 42(2) and 43, verified by affidavit, setting out each ground with the parts of the record that prove it. Annexures include the award, the arbitration agreement, the pleadings and procedural orders, the transcripts and the key evidence. A foreign applicant needs a power of attorney or board authority executed and attested properly, and documents in a foreign language need certified translations. Where money is at stake, the applicant should be ready to offer security, because the award-holder will ask for a deposit.

Where: Applicant's lawyer · Time: 2-6 weeks, inside the 60 days · Law: s.42(2) Arbitration Act 2001; s.43 Arbitration Act 2001 · Documents: Arbitration Application, Affidavit, Award and arbitration agreement, Arbitral record, Power of attorney or board resolution, Certified translations

File in the High Court Division within sixty days

The application is filed in the High Court Division in its statutory original jurisdiction and listed before the single-judge bench the Chief Justice has assigned to arbitration matters. The sixty days run from receipt of the award. In Lily Begum Ahmed v Navana Real Estate (2025), the High Court Division held that the Act is a self-contained code and that section 5 of the Limitation Act cannot be used to extend the sixty days; the same reasoning applies to section 42(2).

The Commercial Courts Act 2026 does not move these applications, because it excludes matters within the High Court Division's original jurisdiction.

Where: High Court Division · Time: Within 60 days of receipt of the award · Law: s.42(2) Arbitration Act 2001; Civil Revision No. 4283 of 2024 (HCD, 11.08.2025); s.2(gha) Commercial Courts Act 2026; Article 107(3) Constitution of Bangladesh · Documents: Filed application, Court fee receipt, Vakalatnama

Tip: Aim to file well before day sixty. A late or misfiled application cannot be rescued.

Admission and notice to the award-holder

At the first hearing, the bench admits the application and directs notice to the award-holder, often fixing a date for its affidavit-in-opposition. Service on a foreign award-holder follows the court's directions, usually through its Bangladeshi lawyers in the arbitration, by courier and by e-mail. The court can also direct the parties to file the full arbitral record. An application that plainly shows no ground under section 43 can be summarily dismissed at this stage.

Where: High Court Division · Time: 2-8 weeks · Law: s.42(2) Arbitration Act 2001; s.43 Arbitration Act 2001 · Documents: Order of admission, Notice to the respondent, Affidavit of service

Enforcement on hold, and the deposit question

Section 44 allows an award to be enforced only after the time for a challenge has expired or a challenge has been refused, so a pending application in effect holds up enforcement. To balance this, section 43(2) lets the High Court Division order that any money payable under the award be deposited in court or otherwise secured until the application is decided. The award-holder usually asks for this at the first opportunity. The court decides the amount and form, such as a bank guarantee, a fixed deposit under lien or cash.

Where: High Court Division · Time: 1-3 months · Law: s.43(2) Arbitration Act 2001; s.44 Arbitration Act 2001 · Documents: Application under s.43(2), Evidence of the award-debtor's financial position, Bank guarantee or deposit receipt

Tip: An award-debtor who offers security early is less likely to be ordered to deposit cash, and looks more credible on the merits.

Interim measures to protect enforcement

Separately from a deposit, the award-holder can apply under section 7A, which lets the High Court Division in an international commercial arbitration make interim orders until the award is enforced. These include restraining the award-debtor from transferring property to defeat enforcement, appointing a receiver or issuing an ad interim injunction. Notice is normally required, unless the purpose would be defeated by delay. This matters most where the award-debtor's assets in Bangladesh are few or mobile.

Where: High Court Division · Time: 2-8 weeks · Law: s.7A(1) and (3) Arbitration Act 2001 · Documents: Application under s.7A, Affidavit on assets and risk

Affidavit-in-opposition, reply and the record

The award-holder files an affidavit-in-opposition answering each ground, usually arguing that the challenge is an attempt to reargue facts. The applicant files a reply. The case is decided on affidavits and the arbitral record, not by fresh oral evidence, although the court can allow supplementary affidavits. Where fraud or corruption is alleged, the applicant must put clear documentary evidence before the court, because a bare allegation will not do. Each side should also file an agreed, indexed copy of the record to save hearing time.

Where: High Court Division · Time: 2-6 months · Law: s.43 Arbitration Act 2001 · Documents: Affidavit-in-opposition, Affidavit-in-reply, Indexed arbitral record, Supplementary affidavits

Hearing: supervision, not appeal

At the hearing, the court asks only whether a section 43 ground is made out. In Manikganj Power Generations v Yew Choon (August 2026), the High Court Division dismissed a challenge to an award of about USD 511,000. It held that its jurisdiction is supervisory, not appellate, and that it cannot reappraise evidence merely because another view is possible. It relied on Helm Dungemittel v BCIC (16 BLC 783) and on Bangladesh Railway v Pamkaya, which the Appellate Division affirmed.

In Saudi Arabian Airlines v Saudi Bangladesh Services (2021), the Appellate Division read 'public policy' narrowly, as patent illegality going to the root of the matter.

Where: High Court Division · Time: 1-5 hearing days, often 1-2 years after filing · Law: s.43(1) Arbitration Act 2001; Arbitration Application No. 14 of 2023 (HCD, 10.08.2026); Saudi Arabian Airlines Corporation v Saudi Bangladesh Services Company Ltd, 73 DLR (AD) 277 · Documents: Written submissions, Authorities, Extracts of the record

The law, public policy and fraud grounds

The grounds in section 43(1)(b) are the ones most often argued in setting aside international arbitral award cases. 'Prima facie opposed to the law' does not turn every legal error into a ground: the High Court Division held in 2026 that reading it that widely would erase the difference between an appeal and a challenge. Public policy is read narrowly, as patent illegality going to the root of the matter. Fraud or corruption must be proved, and must have induced or affected the award.

Arbitrability asks whether Bangladeshi law allows that kind of dispute to be arbitrated at all.

Where: High Court Division · Time: Within the hearing · Law: s.43(1)(b)(i)-(iv) Arbitration Act 2001; Arbitration Application No. 14 of 2023 (HCD, 10.08.2026); Saudi Arabian Airlines Corporation v Saudi Bangladesh Services Company Ltd, 73 DLR (AD) 277 · Documents: Legal submissions, Evidence of fraud, if alleged

Judgment: award upheld, set aside or partly set aside

The court either dismisses the application, leaving the award fully enforceable, or sets the award aside. Where decisions on matters within the submission can be separated from those outside it, only the excess part is set aside, under the proviso to section 43(1)(a)(iv). The court does not rewrite the award or substitute its own decision; the Act gives it no power to send the award back to the tribunal. Any deposit or security is released or kept in line with the result, and costs are at the court's discretion.

Where: High Court Division · Time: Judgment day; certified copy 1-4 weeks · Law: s.43(1)(a)(iv) proviso Arbitration Act 2001; s.43(2) Arbitration Act 2001 · Documents: Judgment and order, Certified copy

If the challenge fails: enforcement as a decree

Once the application is refused, section 44 lets the award be enforced under the Code of Civil Procedure as if it were a decree. The enforcing court is the court within whose local limits the award was finally made and signed, which is the District Judge's Court, or a Commercial Court where one has been set up. The award-holder files an execution case under Order XXI with the award and the High Court Division's order. A pending leave petition does not stop execution unless the Appellate Division grants a stay.

Where: District Judge's Court (or Commercial Court) for later enforcement · Time: 1-18 months · Law: s.44 Arbitration Act 2001; Order XXI rules 10-11 Code of Civil Procedure 1908 · Documents: Execution application under Order XXI rule 11, Award, Certified copy of the High Court Division's order

If the award is set aside: start again

Setting an award aside annuls it but does not decide the dispute. The claimant can begin a fresh arbitration under the same agreement, unless the ground was that the agreement was invalid or the dispute not arbitrable, in which case a suit may be the only route. Section 55(4) excludes the time between the start of the arbitration and the court's order when computing limitation, so the claim is not lost by the delay. Fresh arbitration produces a new award, which can again be challenged within sixty days.

Where: Arbitral tribunal (seat in Bangladesh) · Time: Months to years · Law: s.55(4) Arbitration Act 2001; s.12 Arbitration Act 2001 · Documents: Fresh notice of arbitration, Certified copy of the setting-aside order