What Is DIAC? The Delhi International Arbitration Centre Explained Simply

DIAC in plain words

DIAC stands for the Delhi International Arbitration Centre. It's an institution that organises arbitrations. It keeps a panel of arbitrators and appoints them when the parties can't agree, collects fees, manages the paperwork, and gives the parties somewhere to hold their hearings, in a room or online. It doesn't decide anything. The arbitrator decides the dispute, not DIAC and not the Delhi High Court. That decision is called an award, and you can enforce it like a court decree.

Think of it like this. In a court case, the State gives you the judge, the courtroom and the registry. In an arbitration, the parties agree to have their dispute decided privately by an arbitrator they pay. Without an institution, they have to sort out everything themselves, from fees and hearing rooms to what happens when one side stops cooperating. That gets messy fast. DIAC does the organising under a published set of rules, so nobody has to negotiate each step.

So the short answer is that DIAC is the Delhi High Court's own arbitration centre. Indian businesses, government departments and public sector undertakings use it mostly for commercial disputes, and so do parties whose cases the High Court has sent there.

Who set up DIAC, and what's its link with the Delhi High Court?

The Delhi High Court set up DIAC, and it started work in 2009. It calls itself the first High Court annexed institutional arbitration centre in India. It sits on the High Court campus on Sher Shah Road, and the Centre's contact page currently gives the address as S Block, Delhi High Court Campus, Sher Shah Road, New Delhi 110503. Getting there, and what a hearing day looks like, are covered in our guide on where DIAC is and how its hearings work.

The High Court supervises. It doesn't judge. DIAC is overseen by the Arbitration Committee of the Delhi High Court. A Coordinator and Additional Coordinators run it day to day, and Deputy Counsel look after individual cases. High Court judges don't decide DIAC arbitrations. The arbitrators come from DIAC's panel of retired judges, senior advocates, technical experts and other professionals.

That link is why people type "DIAC Delhi High Court" into a search bar together. It's also why the High Court, when it decides a petition to appoint an arbitrator, so often directs that the arbitration run under the rules and aegis of DIAC. The court is sending the parties to its own institution. The panel, the rules and the fee schedule are already there.

Is DIAC a court? What it does and what it doesn't

No. DIAC isn't a court, and it isn't a statutory tribunal like the NCLT or a Debts Recovery Tribunal either. It can't summon someone who never agreed to arbitrate. It can't enforce its own awards. An award made in a DIAC arbitration is enforced through the civil courts under Section 36 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, and any challenge to it goes to a court under Section 34.

What DIAC gives you is structure, and someone who stays with the file. It receives the Request for Arbitration, registers the case, appoints the arbitrator if that's needed, calls for fee deposits, books hearing slots and keeps the record. Its Deputy Counsel is your point of contact. It can also act when a party won't pay its share of the fees. Under Rule 33.5 of the DIAC (Arbitration Proceedings) Rules, 2023, the Centre or the tribunal can terminate the proceedings as to a claim or counter claim if the deposit isn't paid within 30 days of falling due.

It won't take sides, and it won't advise you. The Deputy Counsel will tell you how to file, what the fee is and when the next hearing is. Ask whether your claim is any good and you'll get a polite silence. That question is for your own lawyer, and our DIAC arbitration lawyer page sets out what counsel does at each stage.

What the Centre actually gives the parties

• A panel of arbitrators. Retired judges, senior advocates, technical experts and others. When the parties can't agree on a name, the arbitrator comes from here.
• A way of appointing them. For a sole arbitrator, each side puts forward names from the panel and a name common to both is preferred. If there's none, the Centre appoints. Three-member tribunals follow their own procedure under the Rules.
• A fee schedule. The DIAC (Administrative Costs and Arbitrators' Fees) Rules, 2018 fix the arbitrators' fees and the administrative charges by reference to the sum in dispute, so you don't haggle with the tribunal over money.
• Someone who manages the case. Each matter gets a Deputy Counsel who deals with filings, deposits, dates and correspondence.
• Rooms and video links. You can have hearings in person at the Centre, online or hybrid. If you need a stenographer, ask for one when the slot is booked.
• An emergency arbitrator. Rule 14 of the 2023 Rules lets a party that needs urgent relief before the tribunal is in place apply for an emergency arbitrator, who has to pass an order within 14 days of appointment.
• Fast track and mediation. The parties can agree to the fast track procedure under Section 29B of the Act and the DIAC Rules. DIAC also runs mediation, before an arbitration starts or while it's going on.

Which rules and laws govern a DIAC case

How does a dispute end up at DIAC?

There are three usual doors in. The first is a clause in your contract saying disputes will go to arbitration administered by DIAC under its rules. With that clause in place, the claimant sends a notice invoking arbitration under Section 21 of the Act, and then files a Request for Arbitration with the Centre. Our guide on starting an arbitration at DIAC walks through that filing.

The second door is an agreement signed after the dispute has already started. Section 7 of the Act lets parties agree to arbitrate a dispute that already exists. So two businesses with an ad hoc clause, or none at all, can sign a short agreement and send their dispute to DIAC. The third door is the court. When the Delhi High Court decides a Section 11 petition to appoint an arbitrator, it often names one and directs that the arbitration run under DIAC. We've covered the second and third doors in our guides on reaching DIAC without a DIAC clause and on Section 11 references to DIAC.

One thing DIAC can't do is drag in a party that never agreed in writing to arbitrate. No arbitration agreement of any kind? Then the dispute belongs in a civil or commercial court, at Saket or Tis Hazari or wherever jurisdiction lies. Not at DIAC.

A DIAC case from beginning to end, in eight steps

This is the outline only. Each step is taken apart properly in our guide to the DIAC arbitration process.

1. Notice invoking arbitration

   The claimant sends a notice under Section 21 setting out the dispute and the claim. For limitation, the arbitration starts on the day the respondent receives it.

2. Request for Arbitration

   The claimant files a Request with DIAC along with the contract, the clause, the claim and the administrative charges. If the case comes through a Section 11 order, that order goes with it.

3. Response

   The respondent replies within the time the Rules allow, and this is usually where any objection to jurisdiction appears, along with notice of a counter claim.

4. Appointment of the tribunal

   Either the parties agree on someone from the panel, or DIAC appoints. The arbitrator then gives a written disclosure of independence under Section 12.

5. Fee assessment and deposits

   DIAC works out fees under the 2018 rules on claim and counter claim together. It then calls for deposits, normally half from each side.

6. First procedural hearing and pleadings

   The tribunal sets a timetable for the statement of claim, the defence, any counter claim and replies. These preliminary hearings now usually happen online under DIAC's practice direction.

7. Evidence and arguments

   Documents are admitted or denied and issues framed. Witnesses file affidavits and get cross-examined. Then both sides argue, orally and in writing.

8. Award

   The tribunal makes a reasoned award, with interest under Section 31(7) and costs under Section 31A where they fit. From then, the parties have three months to challenge it under Section 34.

Time and money at DIAC, one stage at a time

What does a DIAC arbitration cost, and who pays for it?

You pay your own lawyers. The other side pays theirs. Then there's the money that goes to DIAC: the tribunal's fee and the Centre's administrative charges, both set by DIAC's 2018 fee rules on a scale that climbs with the sum in dispute. During the case, each side usually puts in half. When the award comes, the tribunal can rebalance. Under Section 31A, costs generally follow the event, which means the loser may end up carrying the winner's share too. It's a discretion, not an automatic rule. Our guide on DIAC arbitration fees explains how the schedule works.

Businesses miss this all the time. DIAC adds the counter claim to your claim before it works out the fee. You sue for Rs 40 lakh. They answer with Rs 2 crore. Your fee base is now Rs 2.4 crore, unless DIAC decides to assess the two on their own. That's what happened in Samsung India Electronics Pvt Ltd v. Delhi International Arbitration Centre (Delhi High Court, 18 March 2026). The respondent wouldn't pay its half of the fee on the main claim, so DIAC split the assessment, and the court upheld that.

Before anything is filed, Advocate B.K. Singh usually asks the client to sit down with the other side's own emails and list every complaint they've ever made. Those complaints are what a counter claim gets built from. Put a rough value on each and you get a realistic total for the sum in dispute. That gives you the deposit too, before any money goes out. Sometimes it also shows the claim is better run through some other route.

Is a DIAC award binding, and what can a court do with it?

Yes, it binds both sides. There's no regular appeal, the way there would be from a decree. The losing party gets three months from receiving the award to file a Section 34 petition to set it aside, and a court satisfied that there was sufficient cause may give it up to 30 days on top. Not a day beyond. The grounds are few and tight. A party lacked capacity, or the arbitration agreement was invalid, or someone never got proper notice. The award went outside what was referred, or the tribunal was wrongly constituted, or the subject can't be arbitrated at all. It conflicts with public policy. And for domestic awards there's one more, patent illegality that shows on the face of the award. Nobody re-argues the merits. In Gayatri Balasamy v. ISG Novasoft (2025), a Constitution Bench said courts may modify an award in a limited way (severing a bad part, correcting a clerical slip) but may not rewrite it.

Filing a Section 34 petition doesn't stay the award by itself. Since 2015, you've had to ask the court for a stay under Section 36, and the court can put conditions on it, such as a deposit. Once the challenge period is over, or a challenge fails, the award is enforced like a decree. Our guide on enforcing a DIAC award covers execution.

Which court hears it turns on the seat and the value. For a Delhi-seated commercial arbitration, matters above Rs 2 crore go to the Commercial Division of the Delhi High Court. Anything below goes to the district Commercial Courts. There's a proposal to raise the district court limit that has been under consideration, so check the current figure. Appeals under Section 37 go to the Commercial Appellate Division.

Is it the same as the Dubai centre, or the India International Arbitration Centre?

It's neither. Dubai's arbitration centre goes by the same four letters, and Google mixes them up constantly. Two Indian companies, a contract that talks about Delhi or the Delhi High Court? That's our DIAC, almost certainly. A clause that refers to Dubai, the DIFC or the UAE points the other way, to a centre with separate rules and a separate fee scale. If you can't tell, sit with your lawyer and read every word of the clause. It nearly always becomes obvious.

The India International Arbitration Centre, or IIAC, is a separate institution, also based in Delhi. It was created by the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre Act, 2019 and renamed later. The IIAC is a statutory body. DIAC is the High Court's own centre. Mumbai has the Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration, and plenty of Indian companies with foreign partners use the Singapore International Arbitration Centre. We've compared DIAC, MCIA and SIAC and which kind of business each tends to suit.

The difference matters because each institution has its own rules, panel and fees. A clause that names the wrong centre, or two centres, can start a fight about jurisdiction before anyone gets to the real dispute.

Who uses DIAC, and when doesn't it fit?

You'll find all sorts at DIAC. Suppliers chasing unpaid invoices. Contractors in construction and infrastructure disputes. Landlords and tenants of commercial premises, franchise and distribution disputes, shareholders and partners who've fallen out. And a large number of cases involve government departments and public sector undertakings whose contracts carry arbitration clauses. Many cases come in through Section 11 orders of the Delhi High Court rather than through a DIAC clause.

Sometimes it's the wrong place. A small claim can be swallowed by the cost of a full tribunal, and a quicker summary route may make more sense; see our guide on summary arbitration at DIAC for small claims. A debtor with no assets is another problem. You'd win a piece of paper. Micro and small enterprises with a Udyam registration have a different option for delayed payments, the MSME Facilitation Council under Section 18 of the MSMED Act, 2006. The Supreme Court decided in Gujarat State Civil Supplies v. Mahakali Foods (2022) that Section 18 wins over a private arbitration clause.

Is the relationship worth saving? Then think about mediation before arbitration hardens everyone's position. Our guide on how DIAC mediation works explains the options. A settlement at any stage can be recorded as a consent award under Section 30 of the Act.

Papers to have ready if your contract names DIAC

• The signed contract, with every annexure and amendment, and any general terms it refers to.
• A marked-up copy of the arbitration clause showing the seat, the institution and how many arbitrators.
• All your invoices, running bills or statements of account, plus proof of delivery or completion.
• Your ledger for the other party's account, and the bank statements that show payments.
• Emails, letters and WhatsApp chats about the dispute, printed or exported in date order.
• Any notice invoking arbitration, any reply, any letter from DIAC, and proof of the date each one reached you.
• A board resolution or authority letter for whoever will sign the pleadings and affidavits for the company.
• A short list of the people who handled the contract and could give evidence.

Things people often get wrong about DIAC

The first mistake is thinking DIAC arbitrators are sitting judges of the Delhi High Court. They aren't. Retired judges sit on the panel alongside senior advocates and technical experts, but no sitting judge decides your arbitration. The second is thinking DIAC is free because it belongs to the High Court. It's not. The parties pay the arbitrators and the Centre under the fee rules.

Third, people expect to appeal a DIAC award on the facts, as they would from a trial court at Tis Hazari. They can't. Section 34 is a narrow challenge. It isn't an appeal. Fourth, they see the early hearings happen on video and assume the whole case will. Under DIAC's practice direction of 29 May 2026, preliminary procedural hearings are virtual, while the hearing rooms are kept for evidence, final arguments and certain applications. Check the direction in force when your case is running.

In Advocate B.K. Singh's experience, the misunderstanding that costs businesses most is believing a DIAC notice can sit on the desk until the lawyer's free. It can't. The response period under the Rules runs from receipt, and a respondent who stays quiet loses the chance to shape the tribunal and the timetable. Treat a DIAC letter the way you'd treat a summons from Patiala House, even though DIAC isn't a court.

What to do this week if your contract names DIAC

Take a pen to the arbitration clause. Circle the institution, the seat, how many arbitrators there'll be, and who picks them. Trouble brewing with a buyer or contractor? Line up the papers by date and find your limitation date, counting from the last payment or the last time they admitted the debt in writing. If DIAC has already written to you, note the day the letter arrived. Your response period runs from that day.

Then decide whether you need advice now or later. The claim and defence work our firm does at the Centre is on the same DIAC lawyer page mentioned above. If you're still at the contract stage, our guide to drafting a DIAC arbitration clause lists what to settle before you sign.

If you'd like someone to look over your contract, notices and correspondence, or want to hear when the DIAC Rules or the arbitration law change, get in touch with Advocate B.K. Singh's team through the contact page.