Interim Relief in a DIAC Arbitration: Should You Go to Court or to the Tribunal?

So who actually grants interim relief in a DIAC case?

Two bodies can. The court can, under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. And the arbitral tribunal can, under Section 17. Which one you go to depends on where your case has reached. Before the tribunal is constituted, the court is the usual place, and the DIAC emergency arbitrator is the other option. Once the tribunal is in place, you go to it. Section 9(3) stops the court from entertaining your application at that stage unless the tribunal's remedy wouldn't be efficacious. Between the award and its enforcement, it's back to the court alone.

What is interim relief? A temporary order that protects the subject of the dispute while the arbitration runs its course. It can freeze a bank account. It can stop a property sale, hold back the invocation of a bank guarantee, preserve goods, make the other side give security for your claim, put a receiver in charge, or stop someone misusing your confidential information. It doesn't decide the case. Its whole job is to make sure there's still something worth having when the award finally comes.

People often assume DIAC, the Centre, passes these orders. It doesn't. The arbitrators it appoints do, under the Act and Rule 15 of the DIAC (Arbitration Proceedings) Rules, 2023. The emergency arbitrator acts under Rule 14. Anything outside that goes to court.

Which forum, at which stage, and roughly what it involves

There's no Section 12A pre-institution mediation for arbitration petitions under the Commercial Courts Act, so you don't have to mediate before filing a Section 9 petition. Our professional fees are separate from everything above. We discuss them at the first meeting and put them in writing, stage by stage.

The provisions that matter for interim relief at DIAC

When is it right to go to court under Section 9?

When there's no tribunal yet and you can't wait for one. That's most real emergencies. The other side is about to sell its only factory. The bank guarantee will be invoked tomorrow. Stock is going out of a Narela warehouse tonight. A court can hear you the same day or the next working day. If the urgency is genuine and your papers are in order, it can pass an ex parte ad interim order before the other side even appears.

The court is also where you go when the order has to bind someone outside the arbitration agreement. A bank. A warehouse keeper. A group company that's holding the goods. An arbitrator gets authority from the agreement, and that usually reaches only the people who signed it. A Section 9 order can be directed at third parties who hold the assets, and frankly that's often the whole point of it.

There's a cost to going to court first, and it's the 90-day rule. If the court grants interim measures before the arbitration has begun, you've got 90 days from the order to commence it, or whatever extra time the court allows. Under Section 21, commencement is the date the other side receives your notice invoking arbitration. So send that notice, and file at DIAC, well inside the window. Our guide on starting an arbitration at DIAC takes you through it. Miss the deadline and the order's in trouble. The other side can apply, and the court may vacate it.

When does the tribunal take over under Section 17?

Once the tribunal is constituted, it becomes the first place to go for interim relief in a DIAC arbitration. That was the point of the 2015 amendments. They made Section 17 orders enforceable like court orders so that parties would stop running back to the High Court. The tribunal can order security for the claim, stop a party dealing with particular assets, direct that goods or documents be preserved, or appoint a receiver. All of this works against the parties to the arbitration.

Asking the tribunal has real upsides. It already has the pleadings. It knows the contract. It can give you a date that matches the urgency, without you waiting for a court listing. At DIAC, the tribunal usually gives the other side a short time to reply and then hears both sides. If things are truly urgent, it can pass a short holding order until the hearing.

What if the other side ignores a Section 17 order? You go to court and enforce it under the Code of Civil Procedure as though it were a court order, including execution against the party in default. The order can be appealed under Section 37(2)(b). But filing that appeal doesn't automatically stay it.

Section 9(3), and why the court may send you back to the arbitrator

This is the one that surprises clients most. Once the tribunal is constituted, the court shall not entertain a Section 9 application unless the Section 17 remedy may not be efficacious. Courts treat that as a real bar. It isn't a formality. File a Section 9 petition while a working tribunal is sitting and the bench's first question will be why you didn't go to the arbitrator.

The Supreme Court sorted out the timing in Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel India v. Essar Bulk Terminal (2021). If the court had already taken up the Section 9 application for consideration before the tribunal was constituted, it can go on and decide it, even after the tribunal comes into existence. If it hadn't, the court will generally decline and leave you to Section 17.

The exception for an inefficacious Section 17 remedy is narrow. We've seen it work in three kinds of case. The relief has to bind a third party the tribunal can't reach. Or the tribunal isn't functioning, because an arbitrator has resigned or is under challenge. Or the danger is so immediate that even a quick arbitral hearing would come too late. Convenience doesn't count. Neither does a hunch that the court is likelier to grant the order. Plead the specific reason in the petition itself. When a client asks Advocate B.K. Singh to file in court after the tribunal is already in place, the first thing he looks for is a party or an asset outside the tribunal's reach. If there isn't one, the application usually belongs before the arbitrator.

Where the DIAC emergency arbitrator fits in

Before the tribunal is formed, the emergency arbitrator is your third option. Under Rule 14 you apply to DIAC. The Chairperson or the Sub-Committee appoints an emergency arbitrator within two days, leaving out non-business days, and the emergency arbitrator has to decide within fourteen days of appointment. The order then holds for 90 days unless the tribunal modifies, substitutes or vacates it. Only the tribunal can extend it. In Municipal Corporation of Delhi v. Himalayan Flora and Aromas (2025), the Delhi High Court held that the order lapses after 90 days.

In an India-seated arbitration, the Supreme Court in Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings v. Future Retail (2021) treated an emergency arbitrator's order as an order under Section 17(1), enforceable under Section 17(2). So it's a real order. Choosing between the court and the emergency arbitrator usually comes down to speed and reach. A court can move in a day and can bind third parties. The emergency arbitrator takes a few days, but the matter stays private and inside the DIAC process.

We've set out the application, timelines and fees in the guide to the DIAC emergency arbitrator. Here we're only looking at court versus tribunal.

What the judge or arbitrator will want to see

Both apply the same three tests you'd meet in any injunction matter. Do you have a prima facie case, meaning a serious claim backed by documents? Does the balance of convenience favour an order? And will you suffer harm that money can't put right later if there's no order? On top of that, every judge and every arbitrator asks the same thing. Why now, and why this particular order? If you waited months after you learned of the risk, explaining the urgency will be hard.

For orders securing the amount claimed, the test sits close to attachment before judgment under Order XXXVIII Rule 5 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Close, not the same. In Essar House v. Arcellor Mittal Nippon Steel India (2022), the Supreme Court said a court hearing a Section 9 petition isn't strictly tied to the technical requirements of the CPC, though its principles still guide the court. In real life, a debt by itself won't do. You'll need to show the other side is selling assets, diverting receivables, shutting branches, or otherwise behaving in a way that could defeat the award. An admitted debt, or a clear acknowledgment in an email, helps a lot.

Some orders are hard to get anywhere. Courts rarely stop the invocation of an unconditional bank guarantee unless there's egregious fraud or irretrievable injustice. And Section 14(d) of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 says a contract that is by nature determinable won't be specifically enforced. So an injunction to stop the other side terminating that kind of contract is usually refused, and you're left with damages. Better to know this before you file. It saves money.

The interim orders businesses most often ask for at DIAC

• Security for the amount claimed. Money deposited in court or with the tribunal, a bank guarantee, or an order not to dispose of named assets up to the value of the claim. In recovery arbitrations, this is the one we're asked for most.
• Restraint on selling property. An injunction stopping the other side from selling, mortgaging or creating third-party rights in specific land, plant or shares. Name the assets exactly. A khasra number or a share certificate number beats a vague description.
• Bank guarantee disputes. Stopping invocation or encashment. It's granted only in narrow cases of fraud or special equities, and you'll usually need the court for it, because the bank isn't a party to the arbitration.
• Keeping goods and records safe. Orders to preserve stock, machinery, moulds, account books or data, or to allow inspection. A local commissioner or the court receiver is often involved; see our note on getting a court receiver appointed.
• Confidential information and IP. Orders stopping use of customer lists, source code, trade marks or know-how. These come up all the time in distribution, franchise and tech disputes.
• Status quo. A short order freezing things as they are until a fuller hearing. Common when shareholders or joint venture partners fall out.

Applying for interim relief in a DIAC arbitration, one step at a time

1. Work out where the case stands

   Has a notice gone out? Has a Request been filed at DIAC? Has anyone been appointed? The answer picks the forum for you. If a tribunal is already sitting, plan on Section 17 unless you've got a clear reason it won't work.

2. Pin down the harm and the order you want

   Write down what's happening, the date you found out, and the one order that would stop it. A narrow prayer, like stopping the sale of a named plot, has a far better chance than a general request to protect your interests.

3. Gather proof of the risk

   Collect whatever shows the threat. A sale ad, a board resolution, the letter invoking the guarantee, a warehouse being cleared, an email from a former employee. Proof that it's urgent counts as much as proof of the debt.

4. Pick the forum and draft

   For the court, you'll need a Section 9 petition with an affidavit and an urgency application. In the Delhi High Court these are registered as OMP (I) (COMM.). For the tribunal, it's an application under Section 17 read with Rule 15. For an emergency arbitrator, apply to DIAC under Rule 14 and copy the other side.

5. Serve, or say why you didn't

   Courts and tribunals expect the other side to get advance notice, unless that notice would itself defeat the purpose. Asking for an ex parte order? Explain why. Once you've got one, serve the papers exactly as directed. Don't cut corners here.

6. Keep to the conditions

   Interim orders usually come with strings. An undertaking to pay damages if the order proves wrong, a deposit, or a direction to start arbitration by a fixed date. Put every date in the diary, including the 90 days under Section 9(2).

7. Carry the order into the arbitration

   Rule 16.1(j) of the DIAC rules requires you to disclose any Section 9 order in your statement of claim. Confirm there too that the arbitration began within the Section 9(2) period. The tribunal can then keep the protection going, change it, or replace it.

Papers you'll need for an interim relief application

Which court hears a Section 9 petition in a DIAC matter?

The court with jurisdiction over the seat. Most DIAC clauses make New Delhi the seat. In BGS SGS Soma JV v. NHPC (2019) the Supreme Court held that naming a seat gives that place's courts exclusive supervisory jurisdiction. So take a Gurugram supplier and a Noida buyer who agreed to DIAC with a New Delhi seat. Their Section 9 petition goes to Delhi. Not Gurugram, and not Gautam Buddh Nagar.

Inside Delhi, Section 10 of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 tells you which bench. If it's a commercial dispute of specified value and the value is above Rs 2 crore, the petition goes to the Commercial Division of the Delhi High Court on its original side. Our page on the Commercial Division of the Delhi High Court explains how that works. Below that figure, it goes to the District Judge (Commercial Court) with territorial jurisdiction, at Saket, Tis Hazari, Karkardooma or wherever applies. There's been a proposal to raise the district court limit. Check the current figure before you file.

Sometimes the clause uses DIAC only to administer the case and puts the seat somewhere else, say Ghaziabad or Faridabad. Then the court designated as the Commercial Court for that district, or the relevant High Court, has jurisdiction. Read the clause slowly. 'Venue' and 'seat' don't always mean the same thing. A petition in the wrong court costs you days, and in an interim matter you may not have them.

After the award: protection until it's enforced

The tribunal's power to grant interim measures ends the moment the award is made. From then until enforcement, only the court can help, under Section 9. It's a risky stretch. A losing party knows a Section 34 challenge will take months, and some use that time to move assets. A Section 9 petition at this point can secure the awarded sum through a deposit, a bank guarantee or a restraint on named assets.

Don't mix this up with a stay of the award. If the losing side files a Section 34 challenge and wants the award stayed, Section 36(3) lets the court grant a stay on conditions. Usually that means depositing all or part of the awarded amount. A party about to file a challenge will often offer security on its own, because a Section 9 order could come on harsher terms. We've covered execution and stay in the guide to enforcing a DIAC award.

How it plays out for different businesses

• Suppliers and manufacturers. They mostly want security for unpaid invoices. It's easier to get a Section 9 order when the buyer has admitted the debt and is visibly winding down.
• Service firms and IT vendors. Often they're on the receiving end. A client wants to block invocation of a performance guarantee, or demands the source code back. Keep your handover records ready.
• Lenders and NBFCs. They use interim relief to stop sale of hypothecated vehicles or equipment, and to have a receiver take possession. If a bank is the lender, the DRT may be the natural forum instead. What the arbitration clause says decides it.
• Startups. When founders and investors fall out, it's usually about status quo orders over shareholding and the board. Speed matters, and so does privacy. Both point towards the tribunal or an emergency arbitrator.
• MSMEs. If you're a registered micro or small supplier, the MSME Facilitation Council may be the stronger route for the money itself. But interim protection still comes from the court under Section 9.
• Large companies. Usually they're defending. Very often the best defence is to offer security, which takes the urgency away, and give a firm answer on the merits alongside it.

Mistakes that cost people their interim order

• Sitting on it. You found out about the sale three weeks ago and did nothing. That alone can sink the urgency argument. Act the day you learn, even if all you do first is send a notice.
• Wrong court. You filed where the respondent's office is instead of at the seat, and the petition came back. Check the seat clause before anything else.
• Running to court after the tribunal is formed, with no reason. Section 9(3) will usually send you straight back. If you must go to court, spell out exactly why Section 17 won't work.
• Letting the 90 days slip. A pre-arbitration Section 9 order needs the arbitration to commence within 90 days. Get the notice out and file at DIAC quickly.
• Asking for everything. A prayer to protect 'all assets' hardly ever works. Say which property, which account, which goods.
• Hiding the awkward bits. Leaving out an earlier payment, or a complaint they filed against you, can get the order vacated with costs. Disclose it all.

What to do this week

Take one sheet of paper. Write what the other side is doing, when you found out, and what you want stopped. Dig out the arbitration clause and look at the seat. Then check the stage. Has a notice gone? Has DIAC appointed anyone? Those three facts tell you whether it's the court, an emergency arbitrator or the tribunal.

Start collecting proof of the risk today. Not just proof of the debt. In the interim matters that come to Advocate B.K. Singh, the applications that get orders usually rest on one strong document showing the threat, like a sale listing or a guarantee invocation letter, filed within days of it surfacing. If you're the one facing the application, think about whether offering security now ends the fight on better terms. For ordinary court injunctions outside arbitration, see our page on urgent injunctions in commercial suits. For interim relief in arbitrations DIAC isn't running, our network site arbitrationlawyer.in covers Section 9 practice generally.

Our DIAC arbitration lawyer page explains how we handle claims and defences at the Centre. The guide to the statement of claim shows how to carry an interim order into your pleadings. If you'd like your contract and the evidence of risk looked at quickly before you choose a forum, send them to Advocate B.K. Singh's team through the contact page.