Arbitration & Conciliation
Dispute Resolution is one of the cornerstones of the Firm’ s practice. The Firm specialises not only in the traditional avenues of dispute resolution like litigation in diverse forums including the Supreme Court of India, High Courts, Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, National Consumer Redressal Commission, National Green Tribunal & others, providing strategic advice & opinions; drafting pleadings, appearing and conducting matters – both at original and appellate stages, involving disputes arising from commercial contracts of various sectors including building and construction law related legal issues, but also at alternate methods such as arbitration, mediation and conciliation. The Firm has been proactive in adapting to emerging trends in alternate dispute resolution. It is actively engaged in arbitrations in commercial and contractual issues across various sectors of the industry, including, highways, aviation, shipping, land acquisition, labour, environment, power, etc.
Krishan Kumar has an extensive practice in arbitration related litigation. With a dedicated team of Advocates, the Firm has the expertise, experience and capacity to provide a complete range of professional services. The Firm has experience in all aspects right from invocation of arbitration to finally defending and challenging the arbitral awards in courts.
Our clientele consists of companies from both the public and private sectors. This add variety to the Firm’ s experience and gives it a unique edge.
Key transactions
The Firm is the standing counsel for Indian Overseas Bank in Delhi High Court. The Firm is on the panel for numerous multinational corporations, statutory bodies etc.
The Firm has represented public bodies in dispute resolution cases relating to infrastructure projects. The Firm has handled matters relating to EPC contracts based on FIDIC as well as Concession Agreements based on the PPP model.
In the course of my practice over the years the firm have had the opportunity of appearing for and on behalf of NHAI since 1999 before the duly constituted Arbitral Tribunals in defence of claims established by the Concessionaires, and in the High Courts u/s Section 34 and 9 / 14 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act , 1996 against claimants / award holders.
In the period of lockdown occasioned by an outbreak of a pandemic, a number of employers had petitioned the Supreme Court of India, one of which was through the undersigned pleading for an annulment of Government Circular mandating full 100% payment of wages to its employees.
One of my other accomplishments includes securing an award in favor of NHAI connected with the issue of a price escalation clause. The award in the above-captioned matter was passed by the Tribunal, being the co-arbitrator and a few senior engineers where the Tribunal had an occasion to delve upon contentious issue with the interpretation of price escalation clause which normally appears in NHAI contracts based upon the FIDIC model. The Tribunal had considered general principles of interpretation of the contract and its clauses. It further considered the practice followed by the Asian Development Bank in the application of the price escalation formula. The judgment gains importance in view of the fluid situation existing in respect of the true and correct interpretation of the price
escalation clause.
The Firm’ s offices in Delhi and Mumbai are currently handling number of live arbitration cases involving multiple disputes with claim amounts in most of these cases exceeding crores of rupees.