India, Sept. 21 -- Arbitration may rhyme with "arbitrary," but it cannot result in an arbitrary measure, the Supreme Court said, scrapping an arbitral proceeding after a tribunal went ahead with sweeping interim orders despite an objection to its appointment and allegations of links with one of the parties.

A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran held that the very initiation of arbitration was "non est in law" after finding that there was nothing to show that the appellants had consented to the appointment of the tribunal, as the respondent bank claimed.

The court termed the interim orders, which included freezing multiple bank accounts, permitting the respondent bank to take possession of the appellants' movable and immo...