The 36-fold gap between the majority’s damages award and the dissenting arbitrator’s assessment has intensified questions about fairness, alleged bias and the valuation of a project that never materialised.
The Singapore court’s recent enforcement order has sharply escalated Tata Power’s dispute with Kleros Capital Partners. It authorises the seizure and sale of Tata Power’s shares in two Singapore subsidiaries to satisfy an arbitration award now exceeding US$650 million, according to Kleros. Yet enforcement does not resolve the questions at the heart of Tata Power’s appeal: whether the damages were properly assessed and whether the arbitration process met the standards of fairness and impartiality expected in an international dispute.
The scale of the award is difficult to overlook. In July 2025, a majority of the three-member tribunal awarded Kleros US$490.32 million, plus interest and costs, for the alleged loss of a chance to participate in a proposed Russian coal project. The third arbitrator, the Indian member, dissented. He found that the evidence did not establish that Tata Power had deprived Kleros of that opportunity and would have awarded US$13.5 million in negotiating damages instead. The majority’s figure is more than 36 times the dissenting assessment. That gulf raises a fundamental question: how did a disputed, unrealised commercial opportunity translate into damages of this magnitude?
Former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi has publicly questioned the legal and commercial basis of the damages calculation, including the scale of compensation for a project that did not materialise. Former Supreme Court judge Justice Vineet Saran has also raised concerns about an award that, as reported, appears to rest on projected future returns rather than actual project execution or investment. Justice Saran said he had not examined the full case record, so his remarks should be understood as public legal commentary—not a judicial finding. Together, however, their concerns have brought renewed attention to whether the award’s assumptions and scale withstand scrutiny.
The award has also faced questions over alleged non-disclosures involving two majority arbitrators and connections linked to Kleros’s third-party funder. Tata Power argued that these circumstances gave rise to apparent bias. The Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC) rejected the challenge, finding that the evidence did not meet the legal threshold for setting aside the award. The allegations have not been judicially established. But concerns about disclosure and impartiality are central to confidence in arbitration, and Tata Power’s appeal gives the Singapore Court of Appeal an opportunity to review the SICC’s decision.
The record also has an important distinction: the tribunal unanimously found Tata Power liable for breaches of the parties’ agreements in 2023, and Tata Power did not challenge that liability award. Its later challenge focused on the damages award and alleged procedural and impartiality issues. In August 2026, the SICC dismissed those applications. Tata Power has appealed that decision to Singapore’s Court of Appeal, the country’s highest court. The appeal remains pending, so the dispute is still sub judice at the appellate stage.
The enforcement order means the award can be enforced while the appeal proceeds; Kleros has said the appeal does not automatically stay enforcement. That creates immediate commercial consequences for Tata Power. But enforcement is not the same as a final appellate determination of the questions raised in the appeal. The Court of Appeal has yet to rule on them.
For Tata Power, this case has become about more than a large financial claim. It raises difficult questions about how tribunals should value hypothetical opportunities, how damages should be assessed when a proposed project never reaches execution, and how alleged conflicts or non-disclosures should be examined. The sharp dissent on quantum and the concerns voiced by senior Indian legal figures make the award’s reasoning especially deserving of close appellate scrutiny.
When one arbitrator’s assessment differs from the majority’s by more than 36 times, and questions have been raised about both the damages methodology and the tribunal’s disclosures, it is understandable that critics describe the outcome as one-sided—and ask whether it risks making a mockery of arbitration. That is an argument for rigorous appellate review, not a substitute for it. The award has been upheld at first instance and enforcement has been authorised, but Tata Power’s appeal remains before Singapore’s highest court. The appellate judgment will determine what follows.
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