A division bench of the Delhi High Court has dismissed an appeal by Kurukshetra Expressway Private Ltd. (KEPL) against an earlier order that set aside a Rs. 911.13 crore termination payment awarded to it against the National Highways Authority of India, holding that an arbitral tribunal cannot award termination compensation beyond the ceiling the parties themselves fixed in their concession agreement.
KEPL had terminated its 2010 concession agreement with NHAI for the four-laning of the Rohtak-Bawal stretch of NH-71, asserting an 'Indirect Political Force Majeure Event' on the ground that the COVID-19 pandemic and a prolonged farmers' agitation had stopped toll collection for more than 180 days within a continuous 365-day period. A majority arbitral award dated 16 August 2024 accepted this case and granted KEPL a termination payment of Rs. 911.13 crore plus interest.
NHAI challenged the award under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, and a single judge of the Delhi High Court set aside the termination payment and connected interest, holding that the tribunal had exceeded the concession agreement's own contractual cap on termination liability, while leaving the tribunal's findings on KEPL's other, unrelated claims undisturbed.
On KEPL's appeal against the partial setting-aside, the division bench, in its order dated 28 September 2026 upholding the order of 28 July 2026, rejected KEPL's case and confirmed that a tribunal's award must remain faithful to the termination-compensation formula the parties actually negotiated, however severe the underlying disruption may have been.