Changes

# The court has an unfettered discretion to impose terms and conditions upon a stay of court proceedings for arbitration. Section 6(2) of the Singapore International Arbitration Act states that when an application is made by a party in accordance with s.6(1), the court must order a stay of court proceedings unless the arbitration agreement is "null and void, inoperative or incapable of being performed" but may impose "such terms or conditions as it may think fit".

# The justice of the case demanded the imposition of the condition that the Defendants waive the defence of time bar in the English arbitration proceedings especially in light of:

## The uncertainty and confusion surrounding the identity of the charterparty referred to in the Bill of Lading. It would have been unreasonable to expect the Plaintiffs to comply with an arbitration agreement found in a charterparty, of the identity of which the shipowners themselves were not certain. In fact, the Plaintiffs were only informed of the identity of the relevant charterparty after the expiry of the one-year time limit for instituting proceedings (bearing in mind that the Plaintiffs were not privy to any charterparty).