When a contract worth crores breaks down, large companies do not queue for a courtroom. They arbitrate — privately, with a tribunal they helped choose, on a timetable they can plan around. We run arbitration the way it was meant to work: tight pleadings, disciplined evidence, and a constant eye on settlement and enforcement.
Arbitration is a private trial. Instead of a judge, a tribunal — usually one or three arbitrators — hears the dispute and gives a binding award. The Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 governs it, courts intervene only at defined points, and the award is enforceable like a court decree.
For large corporates the attractions are real: confidentiality, subject-matter expertise on the tribunal, procedural flexibility and — since the recent amendments — statutory pressure for speed. The traps are equally real: a badly drafted arbitration clause, the wrong seat, or a bloated proceeding can cost you every advantage. Our job is to keep arbitration what it should be: the fastest credible route to money or certainty.
A major contract has broken down — EPC, supply, distribution, technology or a JV/SHA dispute — and the contract points to arbitration. The notice invoking arbitration starts clocks you should not start unprepared.
You need urgent protection: assets being moved, guarantees about to be invoked, evidence at risk. Section 9 interim relief can move in days — if the application is built properly.
You hold an award (or face one) and the real fight — enforcement or challenge under Section 34 — is about to begin. This is where awards are actually collected or killed.
Review of your arbitration clauses before a dispute (and in live contracts) — seat, institution, tribunal size and language set so the clause works when needed. In a live dispute: forum and sequencing strategy across arbitration, courts and regulators.
Invocation notices, statements of claim and defence, counterclaims and applications — drafted tightly around the contract and the documents, because arbitrations are won on paper more often than in hearings.
Section 9 and Section 17 applications: securing the amount in dispute, restraining guarantee invocation where the law allows, preserving assets and evidence.
Witness statements, expert evidence (quantum, delay, technical), cross-examination preparation and hearing advocacy support with counsel — a record built to survive a Section 34 challenge.
Execution of awards as decrees, Section 34 challenges on the narrow grounds the law permits, and structured settlement or mediation at the points where a deal beats an award.
Institutional arbitrations in India commonly run 12–24 months to award; ad hoc timelines depend on the tribunal's discipline, which is why tribunal selection matters. Interim relief can be obtained in days to weeks. Enforcement after award: 6–18 months if resisted.
Arbitration cost has three parts — institution/tribunal fees, counsel, and your advisory team. We budget all three at the start, stage the engagement (pleadings, evidence, hearings, award), and quote each stage before it begins.
Clauses copied from old contracts create jurisdictional fights before the real fight — wrong seat, unworkable appointment process, pathologies courts must cure. The dispute then starts a year late.
Endless applications and court-style adjournment culture destroy arbitration's only advantages. Tribunals notice, costs follow, and the record suffers.
An award against a party with no reachable assets, or one riddled with procedural defects, is an expensive trophy. Enforcement thinking starts on day one, not after the award.
Contract, correspondence and quantum reviewed; you get a candid merits view, a forum map and a budget — before the invocation notice goes out.
Interim relief where needed, evidence secured, limitation protected. The dispute is stabilised before it is argued.
Pleadings, evidence and hearings run on the tribunal's calendar with disciplined preparation. Settlement is tested at defined points, not as an afterthought.
Award enforcement or challenge handled to conclusion — execution, recovery, and the accounting and disclosure steps that follow for your board.
Usually, yes — a well-run institutional arbitration finishes in 12–24 months against many years in commercial courts, and the 2015–2019 amendments push timelines hard. A badly run arbitration, however, can be slower than court. The difference is management, which is what we provide.
An institution (MCIA, DIAC, SIAC, ICC) administers the case — appointing arbitrators, fixing fees, managing timelines — for an administrative fee. Ad hoc means the parties and tribunal manage everything themselves: cheaper on paper, riskier in practice for large disputes.
Yes. Section 9 lets you seek interim protection from court before or during arbitration (and after award, before enforcement). Once the tribunal is constituted, it holds the same power under Section 17, and courts step back.
Only on narrow grounds under Section 34 — incapacity, invalid agreement, lack of notice, excess of mandate, procedural unfairness, or patent illegality/public policy in domestic awards. Courts will not re-hear the merits. Challenges succeed rarely, but a flawed proceeding invites them.
The seat fixes the supervisory court and the law governing the arbitration itself — it is the single most consequential word in the clause. Venue is just where hearings happen. Confusing the two is a classic and costly drafting error.
Yes, if both sides agree in writing after the dispute arises — a submission agreement. Where relations have collapsed that agreement is hard to get, which is why mediation or court may be the realistic route. We assess which forum actually serves you.
Yes — India-seated proceedings with foreign parties and foreign-seated proceedings involving Indian companies, including enforcement of foreign awards in India under the New York Convention framework.
When the relationship must survive (JV partners, long-term suppliers, family businesses) or when both sides' real problem is a number, not a principle. Mediation under the Mediation Act, 2023 now produces enforceable settlements — we use it deliberately, not as a delay tactic.
Talk to a partner about your situation — no pitch, no obligation. If we're not the right firm for it, we'll tell you that too.
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