Following the issuance of Constitutional Court Ruling No. 15/PUU-XII/2014 dated 11 November 2014, up until now, no clear guidance has been provided on the use of Article 70 of the Arbitration Law (Law No. 30 of 1999) ie, the reasons for which an arbitration award can be annulled. This advisory discusses the recent development in the interpretation of Article 70 of the Arbitration Law by the Indonesian courts.

Under the Arbitration Law (Law No. 30 of 1999), a domestic arbitration award that has been registered by the arbitrator(s) or its
proxy with the court can be annulled. The annulment request must be made in writing and submitted to the relevant district court within 30 days of the submission and registration date of the award in the registrar’s office of the relevant district court.

Under Article 70 of the Arbitration Law, the following are the limited reasons underlying the request for the annulment:
a. After the award has been rendered, the letters or documents submitted for the examination are admitted or declared as false/forged.
b. After the award has been rendered, important decisive documents, which were previously concealed by the opponent, are revealed.
c. The award is rendered on the basis of a fraud committed by either of the disputing parties. Before the Constitutional Court issued Ruling No. 15/PUU-XII/2014 on 11 November 2014 (“2014 Constitutional Court Ruling”) and in accordance with the elucidation of Article 70 of the Arbitration Law, the above reasons for the request for annulment must be proven by a
court decision. However, following the issuance of the 2014 Constitutional Court Ruling, the existence of a court decision proving the reasons for the request for annulment was no longer