In short. Your starting point for a DIAC certified copy of an award is the signed copy that Section 31(5) of the Arbitration Act makes the tribunal send to each side. Need a spare, lost the original, or want copies of orders? Write to the DIAC Coordinator and quote the case number. This guide is for businesses that need an award or order for a court petition, execution, a bank, an auditor or a court abroad. Requests usually take a few days to a few weeks. First, check what's already in your file. Then find out who in the company signed for it.
Is this your situation?
- The tribunal announced the award a while ago. Nobody in your office can say for sure whether a signed copy ever came in.
- Your lawyer has asked for the award and every procedural order, because the Section 34 petition (or the execution petition) has to be filed soon.
- The signed award went to a director who's since left, or to the site office, or to the counsel you changed last year. It's gone.
- The bank manager, your auditor or an investor doing due diligence wants an attested copy of the award or of an interim order.
- Your award is against a company with assets overseas, and the foreign lawyer keeps writing back asking for an authenticated copy.
- There's a High Court hearing next week and you need DIAC order sheets, or the emergency arbitrator's order, in the paper book.
- You'd rather your award didn't end up on DIAC's website, and you don't know if it will.
Getting a DIAC certified copy of an award, in short
What matters most is the signed copy of the award. Section 31(5) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (the Act) says a signed copy shall be delivered to each party once the award is made. In a DIAC case that usually happens through the Centre, by email and then by post or by hand. That signed copy is what you'll put before a court. And the day you receive it starts some important clocks.
Need another copy? Lost the first one? Or want the Centre to attest a copy for a bank or a foreign court? Write to the DIAC Coordinator. Give the case reference number, the parties' names, the tribunal, the award date, which document you need and what it's for. The DIAC (Arbitration Proceedings) Rules, 2023 don't lay down a form or a fee for copies, so ask the Centre how it's dealing with these requests right now and whether there's a charge.
Orders work the same way. Procedural orders and the order sheet from each hearing go round to the parties as the case moves, mostly by email. Gaps in your file? The Centre can fill them. Court orders are another story. If the Delhi High Court made a Section 11 appointment or granted a Section 9 injunction in a connected case, the certified copies of those orders come from the High Court's own copying section and not from DIAC.
Signed, certified or plain: which award copy do you actually need?
These words get thrown around loosely, and it causes real problems. A signed copy carries the arbitrators' original signatures. Section 31(1) says the award has to be in writing and signed. With a three-member tribunal, the majority's signatures are enough as long as the reason for the missing one is stated (Section 31(2)). The award also has to give its date and the place of arbitration (Section 31(4)). Tribunals normally sign enough originals for every party, plus one for the Centre's record.
A certified copy, in arbitration, is one that a person with authority attests as a true copy of the original. DIAC can attest copies of documents it holds. Your advocate can also certify a photocopy as a true copy for filing, which is what's done with annexures every day at the Delhi High Court registry. But that doesn't make it the signed copy the Act is talking about.
A plain copy is just a scan or photocopy. Nobody has attested it. That's fine for internal use, for sending to your lawyer and for most letters. It isn't what a court, a foreign enforcement authority or a careful bank will treat as the award. So when a client asks us for a DIAC certified copy, we ask straight back: certified for whom? Decide which of the three you need before you write to anyone. Most of the time, the answer is the signed copy you already have, kept safe, with attested copies made from it.
The rules on DIAC records and award copies
Section 31, Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996
The award has to be written and signed by the tribunal's members. It must give reasons, unless the parties agreed it needn't or it's a consent award, and it must state its date and place. Section 31(5) requires a signed copy to go to each party. Section 31(7) covers interest and Section 31(8) covers costs. You'll be reading both off the award when you work out what's owed.
Sections 33 and 34(3), Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996
Under Section 33, a party has 30 days from receiving the award to ask the tribunal to fix computation, clerical or typing errors, to interpret a specific point if both sides agree, or to make an additional award on claims it missed. Section 34(3) allows three months from receipt of the award, or from disposal of a Section 33 request, to file a challenge. The court can add up to 30 days for sufficient cause. Not a day more.
Section 36, Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996
When the challenge period runs out, or a challenge is rejected, the award is enforced under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 just like a court decree. A Section 34 petition doesn't stay the award by itself. The execution court will want the award on its file. That's where a signed, properly stamped original counts.
Rules 3, 31 and 35, DIAC (Arbitration Proceedings) Rules, 2023
Rule 3 is about letters and emails. It says when a communication is taken as received, and Rule 3.5 makes whoever files something with the tribunal send a copy to the other side and to DIAC at once. Rule 31 is about the draft award. The tribunal has to give it to the Coordinator for scrutiny no later than 45 days before its mandate expires. Under Rule 31.3, DIAC may publish the award, unless someone writes in first asking it not to. Rule 35 keeps the case and the award confidential. There are exceptions, enforcing or challenging the award in court among them.
Article 12, Schedule I, Indian Stamp Act, 1899
An arbitral award is an instrument that attracts stamp duty. In URC Construction (P) Ltd v. Airports Authority of India (Delhi High Court, 1 September 2026), the court held that duty is due when the award is signed. Paying the shortfall late, at enforcement, doesn't cure the defect without the penalty the Stamp Act lays down.
When does DIAC send the signed award, and who should get it?
Clients are often puzzled by the wait after final arguments. Part of it is the DIAC Rules at work. Rule 31.1 has the tribunal hand its draft to the Coordinator first. A scrutiny committee then gets up to a month to suggest changes of form. Only after that does the final award come out. There's even a DIAC form for fixing the date on which the award will be dictated. Once it's signed, copies go out from the Centre or straight from the tribunal.
Delivery means delivery to the party. A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court said so in Ministry of Health and Family Welfare v. Hosmac Projects (December 2023): giving the signed award to the party's lawyer or agent and nobody else doesn't satisfy Section 31(5). The Supreme Court, in Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam v. Navigant Technologies (2021), tied the challenge period to the day the signed award is received. So who in your company received the award, and when, isn't paperwork for its own sake. It fixes how long you've got. Our guide to challenging a DIAC award under Section 34 goes through those dates properly.
Check the address for service on the DIAC file long before the award is due. Companies move. Directors leave. Email accounts get shut down. If the Centre still has your registered office from three years back, the signed award could be lying in some reception register in Okhla while your team waits for it. Write to the Coordinator with your current postal address, an authorised officer's email and a copy of the board authorisation. Keep proof you sent it.
When the signed award does turn up, Advocate B.K. Singh tells clients to do three things. Whoever opens the envelope or the email writes the date and time of receipt on a covering note. The award gets scanned that same day. And it goes to counsel before anything else happens. If it sits in a director's bag for a week, that's a week gone from the time you have to challenge or enforce.
Asking for copies of a DIAC award or order, step by step
Follow this when you need an extra, replacement or attested copy of an award or order from the Centre.
Take stock of what you've got
Go through your own file and your counsel's. List every order and the award, the date on each, and whether you hold a signed original, an emailed scan or just a photocopy. Usually it's one or two orders missing. Rarely the whole record.
Pin down what you need, and why
A court filing needs the full award with every annexure. A bank might be happy with the operative part. A foreign enforcement application needs a duly authenticated original or a certified copy. Write the purpose down. It decides what you ask the Centre for.
Write to the DIAC Coordinator
Send a letter or email with the DIAC case number, the parties, the tribunal, the document and its date, how many copies you want, and whether the Centre should attest them. An authorised officer signs it, or your advocate on record in the arbitration does. If the person writing is new to the file, attach proof of authority.
Ask about charges and how you'll get them
The DIAC Rules don't fix a copying fee. Ask if one applies and how to pay. Find out whether the copies will be emailed, posted or collected from the Centre at the Delhi High Court. If someone's going in person, check the entry arrangements for the High Court campus first. Gate passes can eat up a morning.
Chase it in writing
If nothing arrives in a week or two, send a short reminder that refers to your first letter. Keep every email. If a court date is close, say so in the request and give the date, so the Centre can move it up.
Check what comes back
Count the pages. Make sure every annexure, schedule and dissenting opinion is there, and match the signatures and dates against your own copy. A missing page you find on filing day is something you could have fixed a week earlier.
For documents the other side filed, look in your own inbox first. Rule 3.5 obliged them to copy you on everything. If they didn't, take it up with the tribunal while the case is still on. After the award is too late.
How do you get copies of DIAC procedural orders and order sheets?
Every DIAC hearing ends in an order, even if all it says is who appeared and when the next date is. Since its guidance note on video conference hearings came into effect on 8 June 2020, DIAC has let arbitrators sign orders digitally, or email a scan of the signed original to the parties and the Centre. So most parties put their file of orders together from their inbox. That works. But only if one person in your company, or in your counsel's office, is responsible for saving each order the day it lands.
Some sittings happen away from the Centre. Rule 23.3 then makes the tribunal inform DIAC and send it the proceedings within seven days. In theory, then, the Centre has an order sheet for every sitting. Wherever it was. Missing one? Ask the Centre for it by date. It's the same kind of request as asking for a DIAC certified copy of the award. The same goes for an emergency arbitrator's order under Rule 14, which you may need in a hurry if the other side breaches it. Our guide on the DIAC emergency arbitrator explains that process.
Don't treat order sheets as clerical clutter. They record who asked for adjournments, which deposits were directed, time extended by consent, admissions made across the table and directions on documents. In a Section 34 challenge or a Section 29A extension petition, judges often read the order sheets to see who held things up. For keeping on top of dates and orders while the case is running, our guide on tracking your DIAC case status and hearing dates sets out a simple routine.
DIAC records and court copies: usual time and cost
| What you need | Who gives it | Usual time | Cost (in general terms) |
|---|---|---|---|
| The signed copy of the award | The tribunal, usually through DIAC, under Section 31(5) | Shortly after the award is pronounced; check how the Centre is doing it | No separate charge to the parties, so far as the Rules show |
| A spare or replacement copy of the award or an order | The DIAC Coordinator, when you ask in writing | Anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on how busy the Centre is | Ask the Centre if there's a copying charge |
| Fixing a typing or arithmetic mistake in the award | The tribunal, on a Section 33 request | Ask within 30 days of receipt; the tribunal decides within 30 days | No separate fee under Rule 7 of the DIAC Fee Rules |
| Stamping the original award | Stamp duty under the Indian Stamp Act as it applies in Delhi | Duty falls due on signing; deal with it in the first month | Whatever the current Delhi schedule says; pay late and you can face a penalty of ten times the deficit |
| Certified copy of a Delhi High Court order (Section 9, 11, 34 or 37) | The High Court's copying section, online or at the counter | Usually a few days; you can apply for urgent copies | Per-page copying charges under the court's rules; check today's rate |
| An authenticated copy to use abroad | An attested copy, then notarisation and an apostille or consular legalisation, whichever the foreign court wants | Plan on two to six weeks | Notary, apostille and translation charges; check current rates |
Is your original award properly stamped? Look before you file for execution
Award holders miss this all the time. Article 12 of Schedule I to the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 makes an award dutiable. Yet plenty of awards in Delhi get signed on a nominal stamp paper, with everyone assuming the balance can be paid some day. Not any more. URC Construction (P) Ltd v. Airports Authority of India (1 September 2026) is the Delhi High Court telling award holders the duty is owed the moment the award is signed. Bring an understamped award to court and it gets impounded. After that, you get it admitted only by paying the shortfall and a penalty of ten times it, under Section 35 of the Stamp Act. The judge can't cut that down. The award holder there had deposited the shortfall only at the enforcement stage.
The judgment did point to ways out. Within a month of signing, you can make good the shortfall before the Collector. If the omission came from accident, mistake or urgent necessity, Section 41 of the Stamp Act lets the Collector accept the deficit within one year of execution, as long as the award hasn't been impounded yet. Other High Courts see the timing of duty on awards differently, and the Supreme Court hasn't resolved it. Check the current position before you act.
So look at the stamp paper the day the signed award arrives. Not the day you file for execution. When an award comes to Advocate B.K. Singh for enforcement, the stamp paper is the first page he turns to. The second is the operative part with the amounts and interest. Catch a stamping problem early and it costs you the duty. Catch it in court, and it can cost ten times the duty and several months besides. For the rest of the execution process, see our guide on enforcing a DIAC award.
Copies of the arbitral record for a Section 34 petition or an appeal
If you're challenging an award, the award has to go in with your petition. The Delhi High Court has repeatedly treated a Section 34 petition filed without it as non est, that is, as if it was never filed at all. Limitation keeps running against you in the meantime. Filing on the last day and promising to add the award later is a real gamble. Get the full signed award, every annexure included, to your counsel well before the deadline.
You'll also file the parts of the arbitral record you rely on. Pleadings, the key exhibits, evidence affidavits, the cross-examination, the orders that matter. Section 34 challenges are normally decided on the record the tribunal had, so those copies need to be complete and readable. If the parties can't agree on what the record contains, the court can call for it from DIAC. Don't count on that as a substitute for your own set. It takes time, and the court will expect each side to file what it relies on.
Which court? For a commercial-value arbitration seated in Delhi, it depends on size. Above the district court limit (Rs 2 crore at present; check the current limit), your Section 34 petition is filed in the High Court's Commercial Division. Under it, you go to the District Judge (Commercial Court) in whichever district complex has jurisdiction. Our page on the Delhi High Court Commercial Division explains filing there. If the Section 34 judgment goes against you, a Section 37 appeal needs a copy of it. Section 12 of the Limitation Act, 1963 generally leaves out the time taken to get a certified copy of the order you're appealing, but only the time actually spent after you've applied. Apply on judgment day. Don't plan around the exclusion.
Certified copies of Delhi High Court orders in a DIAC matter
Lots of DIAC matters come with a court case attached. Maybe the High Court named your arbitrator on a Section 11 petition and packed you off to DIAC. Maybe you got interim protection under Section 9. Then there's the Section 29A order stretching the tribunal's time. Or the Section 34 judgment at the end of it all. Certified copies of all of these come from the High Court's copying section. The court has also notified the E-True Copy Rules of the High Court of Delhi, 2024, under which it issues digitally signed true copies of its records. Its judgments and orders go up on its website too. Check the current procedure and charges there before applying.
For reading, the website copy is enough. In the same court, you can usually annex it to a later petition and state it's a true copy. Get a certified copy, though, if you're filing somewhere else (another court, another state, another country), if some statute requires it, or if you expect a fight about the text. If you'll need the order for execution in Noida, Gurugram or Ghaziabad, or before a court outside India, apply for certified copies as soon as it's uploaded.
Write the High Court case numbers on your DIAC file. Write the DIAC case number on your High Court file. When papers change hands between counsel, or between departments, the link between the two is the first thing to go missing.
Who else can get a copy of a DIAC award? Confidentiality and publication
Under Rule 35.1, the Centre, the tribunal and both parties must keep the case and the award confidential. Rule 35.2 carves out the exceptions where you don't need the other side's written consent. You can disclose to challenge or enforce the award in court. Or because a court orders it. Or to pursue or enforce a legal right or claim, or obey a law that binds you, or answer a regulator or other authority. A tribunal order made on notice also works. And what's already public isn't covered at all.
That covers most of what a business needs. Showing the award to your bank to back a recovery claim, to your auditor, to a regulator, or to an execution court is fine. Giving it to a journalist, a competitor or someone looking to buy your business, without consent, isn't. A guarantor, an insurer or an investor can't get a copy from the Centre just by asking. They'll have to get it from a party, within those limits, or through a court.
Rule 31.3 lets DIAC publish awards on its website or in its publications. If yours has sensitive figures, pricing or trade information in it, write to the Coordinator before publication and ask for confidentiality. The rule says the Centre will then refrain from publishing. Do it the day the award is pronounced. And if the case settled, the consent award may need the same care. Our guide on settling a DIAC arbitration explains how consent awards are recorded.
Papers to keep in the same folder as your DIAC award
From the arbitration itself
- The signed original award, with every annexure and any dissenting opinion
- The covering letter or email from DIAC or the tribunal, which shows when it was delivered
- The courier receipt, delivery report or acknowledgment someone signed at your office
- Every procedural order and order sheet, in date order
- Any order on a Section 33 request for correction or interpretation
- DIAC's fee assessment letters and your deposit receipts, so you can recover costs
For court and enforcement
- Proof that stamp duty was paid on the award, or the Collector's endorsement
- A board resolution or authority letter for whoever will sign the petitions
- Certified copies of any Delhi High Court orders under Sections 9, 11, 29A, 34 or 37
- A sheet working out principal, interest under Section 31(7), and costs to date
- The award debtor's company master data and where it's operating from now
If you're enforcing outside India
- A copy of the award attested by the Centre or the tribunal
- A notarised copy with an apostille or legalisation, as the foreign court wants
- A certified translation if that court won't take English
- A copy of the arbitration agreement, which the New York Convention asks for as well
Using a DIAC award abroad: authenticated copies and the apostille
A DIAC award is made in India, so here it's a domestic award enforced under Section 36. Abroad, it's a foreign award. Most countries enforce those under the New York Convention. The Convention asks the party enforcing to produce the duly authenticated original award or a duly certified copy, plus the original arbitration agreement or a certified copy, with translations if the award isn't in that country's official language. Every country applies this its own way. Start with the foreign lawyer's list.
India signed up to the Hague Apostille Convention, and it's the Ministry of External Affairs that puts the apostille on papers headed to other member states. Typically you take an attested copy of the award, get it notarised, and then get the apostille. Countries outside the Apostille Convention may want consular legalisation instead. It takes time. Plan for it from the day of the award, so there's no gap in which the debtor moves money out of reach.
If your award is against a party based abroad, or you're a foreign business holding an award against an Indian company, our guide on whether a foreign party can arbitrate at DIAC explains how international cases run at the Centre.
An invented example: the award that went to the old office
None of this happened. It's a made-up example. A Noida packaging company wins a DIAC award of about Rs 1.4 crore against a buyer in Faridabad. Partway through the case it moved from Sector 63 to Sector 80, and nobody told the Centre. The signed award is couriered to the old address, where a security guard working for the new tenant signs for it. The company only finds out three weeks later, when its counsel spots a reference to the award in an email from the Centre.
Counsel's letter goes to the Coordinator the same afternoon. Case number at the top. Please re-send a signed copy to the new address, it says, and please confirm when and how the first one was dispatched. The Centre's reply and the courier record go into the file. Counsel also looks at the stamp paper, finds it's of token value, and the company goes to the Collector within the first month of signing to make up the duty. Separately, it applies for a certified copy of the Section 9 order the High Court passed at the start, because the buyer's assets are in Haryana and execution will be filed there.
Near the end of its three months, the buyer files a Section 34 petition. By then the company has everything: the signed award, every order sheet, proof of stamping, the court orders. The enforcement application is ready the moment the court declines to stay the award. Nothing clever happened. The work was done in the first fortnight instead of the last.
Mistakes businesses make with DIAC records and award copies
- Thinking the lawyer's copy counts as the company's. Delivery to counsel alone may not be delivery under Section 31(5). Make sure the company itself gets the signed award, and note the date.
- Never updating the address on the DIAC file. New office, new email, new authorised officer? Tell the Coordinator in writing the week it changes.
- Not looking at the stamp paper. After URC Construction, late stamping in Delhi can mean a penalty of ten times the deficit. Check it on the first day.
- Filing a Section 34 petition without the award. The Delhi High Court has treated those filings as non est. Put the complete award in with the petition.
- Losing order sheets. They show who asked for adjournments and what got conceded. Save each one the day it comes in.
- Passing the award around too freely. Rule 35 makes it confidential. Banks, auditors, regulators and courts are fine. Competitors and the press aren't, unless the other side consents.
- Leaving foreign paperwork till the end. Notarisation, apostille and translation take weeks. Start the day you decide to enforce abroad.
How the need for copies varies from one business to another
- Suppliers and MSMEs. The award is often the biggest asset on your books. Lock the signed original away and work from attested copies. If you're also chasing the buyer before the MSME Facilitation Council or in insolvency, you'll need a set for each forum.
- Service firms and IT vendors. These awards tend to turn on change requests and acceptance certificates. Keep the exhibits the award refers to alongside it, because an execution court or a Section 34 court may ask what a finding was based on.
- Lenders and NBFCs. Auditors and regulators may ask to see the award to support provisioning or a write-back. That's within Rule 35.2. Note down why you disclosed it.
- Government departments and PSUs. Files go through a lot of hands. Name one receiving officer for DIAC correspondence and give the Centre that officer's name in writing.
- Large companies and groups. If the award is against a group company with assets in several states, organise certified copies for every execution court, and any foreign court, in one go.
What to do this week
Dig out the signed award and all the orders. Note who took delivery, and when. Hang on to whatever proves it, whether that's an envelope, a courier slip or an email. Check the stamp paper. If something's missing, write to the DIAC Coordinator with the case number and an exact list, and apply to the Delhi High Court for certified copies of orders passed in any connected court case. Don't want DIAC to publish the award? Say so in writing, now.
If you're weighing a challenge or enforcement, the date of receipt and the state of your papers will shape everything after. Our DIAC arbitration lawyer page explains how we act on both sides of a DIAC case, and the guide on execution of a decree explains the court process an award goes through once it's enforceable.
If you'd like your award, orders and delivery papers looked over before deciding your next move, or want to hear when the law on stamping and delivery of awards shifts, send them to Advocate B.K. Singh's team through the contact page.
Frequently asked questions
Does DIAC charge for a copy of the award?
Neither the DIAC (Arbitration Proceedings) Rules, 2023 nor the DIAC Fee Rules list a copying fee. The signed copy under Section 31(5) reaches each party as part of the process. For extra or attested copies, ask the Coordinator if anything is payable.
Can my lawyer collect the signed award for me?
Yes, for copies. Just know that the Delhi High Court treats delivery to the lawyer or agent alone as no delivery to the party under Section 31(5). Make sure the company itself also gets the signed award, and keep proof of the date.
Does an emailed scan of the award start the Section 34 clock?
Courts look at when the party actually got a signed copy. Whether a scan counts turns on the facts, including what the agreement and the tribunal's directions said about service by email. Treat the earliest possible date as your deadline, and get advice straight away.
Can a guarantor or investor get a copy of the award from DIAC?
Not just by asking. Rule 35 makes the award confidential, and handing it to outsiders needs every party's written consent unless an exception applies, like a court order or enforcing a legal right. A party can share it within those exceptions.
Do I need a certified copy of the award to file for execution?
The execution court will want the award on its record. Normally that means the signed original or a copy certified as true, with proof of stamp duty. Check the current filing requirements of the court where you'll execute.
What if the award has a typing mistake in the amount?
Apply to the tribunal under Section 33 within 30 days of receiving the award to fix the computation or clerical error. Once it's corrected, keep the original award and the correction order together. You'll need both to enforce.
How long does DIAC keep the case file?
The DIAC Rules don't give a retention period for case records. Keep your own full set of pleadings, evidence, orders and the award. Before the file is closed, ask the Centre whether any originals you produced need collecting.
Will DIAC put my award on its website?
It can. Rule 31.3 allows DIAC to publish awards. If any party writes to the Coordinator before publication asking for confidentiality, the Centre is to refrain from publishing, so send that request the day the award is pronounced.
Advocate B.K. Singh
Founder of B.K. Singh & Associates. MCA, LL.B., LL.M. More than twenty years in practice before the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court, district and commercial courts in Delhi NCR, and tribunals.
This guide explains the law in general terms and is not legal advice. For advice on your own papers, contact the team.