In short. Getting ready for your first DIAC sitting is mostly about decisions, not speeches. That first date is usually a procedural meeting. The tribunal fixes the timetable, decides how hearings will run, and sets the next steps. Ten questions decide whether it goes smoothly. They cover the agenda, who attends, service, deposits, objections, the timetable, evidence, interim relief, settlement and cost. This guide is for claimants and respondents with a first date at the Delhi International Arbitration Centre. Sit down with your lawyer a week before and go through all ten.
Is this your situation?
- An email from DIAC, or from the arbitrator, says 'preliminary hearing' with a date and a video link. You've no idea what actually happens there.
- You're the respondent. The Request for Arbitration reached you about ten days ago.
- You're the claimant, you've waited long enough for your money, and you want the tribunal to set short dates.
- Nobody can decide whether your director should join, or the manager who handled the account, or just the lawyer.
- Something about the arbitrator's background bothers you. Or you doubt this dispute should be in arbitration at all.
- DIAC's deposit demand only came in last week, and it's still sitting with accounts.
- You keep wondering whether to mention settlement on the first day, or say nothing and look strong.
What usually happens at a first DIAC hearing?
Almost always, your first sitting before a DIAC tribunal is about procedure. Under Rule 21.2 of the DIAC (Arbitration Proceedings) Rules, 2023 (the DIAC Rules), a newly appointed tribunal talks to both sides and then settles how the case will run. That includes the timelines, and whether anyone needs a transcript or a translator. Rules 16.1 and 17.1 then link the deadlines for the statement of claim and the statement of defence to whatever is fixed at this first procedural meeting. Most lawyers call it the preliminary hearing.
What happens in practice? The tribunal records that it has entered upon the reference. It notes each arbitrator's disclosures about independence and records who's appearing for each side. Then it fixes a schedule. Claim (if it isn't already in), defence and counter claim, reply, admission and denial of documents, issues, evidence. It decides whether later hearings will be in person at the Centre or by video conference. It may dispose of simple applications. Witnesses usually aren't examined on day one.
The whole thing may be over in under an hour. But the orders made in that hour shape the next eighteen months. And some objections are lost for good if you don't take them at the start. The ten questions below are what we go through with every client before a first sitting. If you want the basics first, such as where the Centre is and how its rooms and video hearings work, read our guide on how DIAC hearings run and where they're held.
The rules that apply on day one
Sections 18, 19 and 24, Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996
Both sides have to be treated equally and each given a full chance to present its case (Section 18). The tribunal isn't bound by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 or the law of evidence. The parties can agree on procedure, and if they don't, the tribunal decides it (Section 19). The tribunal decides whether to hold oral hearings or go on documents, but if a party asks, it has to hold oral hearings at a suitable stage, unless the parties agreed otherwise (Section 24).
Sections 12, 13 and 16
Arbitrators have to disclose anything that could raise justifiable doubts about their independence (Section 12, with the Fifth and Sixth Schedules). A challenge has to be made within 15 days of learning of the appointment or the facts (Section 13(2)). An objection that the tribunal lacks jurisdiction must come no later than the statement of defence (Section 16(2)).
Sections 23(4) and 29A
Pleadings should be finished within six months of the arbitrators getting written notice of their appointment (Section 23(4)). The award is due within twelve months of pleadings being completed. That can be stretched by six months if both sides consent, and after that only the court can extend it (Section 29A). Rule 31.1 of the DIAC Rules puts it as eighteen months from completion of pleadings, or longer if the court extends.
Rules 3.5, 17.2, 21.4, 21.5 and 26, DIAC (Arbitration Proceedings) Rules, 2023
Anything you write to the tribunal has to go at the same moment to the other parties and to DIAC, or it isn't taken on record (Rules 3.5 and 3.6). Miss a pleading deadline and your defence, set-off or counter claim can be foreclosed (Rule 17.2). An adjournment request needs written reasons. If it's filed less than 15 days before a hearing, there's a fee of Rs 3,000. Filing it doesn't adjourn anything on its own (Rules 21.4 and 21.5). Hearings can be in person or by video conference after the tribunal consults the parties, and it can go ahead if a party stays away without sufficient cause (Rule 26).
1. Is it only about procedure, or will anything be decided on merits?
Read the notice of hearing and the tribunal's covering email carefully. Then ask your lawyer to confirm exactly what's listed. Most first sittings are procedural. Not all. If an application is pending, say a respondent's objection to jurisdiction or a claimant's request for interim measures, the tribunal may hear it or fix a date. And if the case came to DIAC on a Delhi High Court reference under Section 11, the referral order may carry directions the tribunal will want to record.
The answer changes how you prepare. For a pure scheduling meeting, you need a realistic timetable and a list of decisions. If an application is listed, you'll want a short written note, the documents it relies on, and someone who can answer questions of fact. Don't assume it's a formality just because it's the first date. Ask.
2. Where is it held, and who from the company should be there?
Rule 26.1 lets the tribunal hold hearings in person or by video conference after consulting the parties. Procedural meetings are often online. Confirm the mode, the link or room, and the time. If it's online, do a test call. Check the current practice with the Centre too, because arrangements change.
Then decide who attends. Your lawyer will appear. But a company should also send someone who knows the contract and can make decisions. That might be a director, the business head, or the finance controller who ran the account. Have a board resolution or authority letter ready naming that person, and counsel's vakalatnama or authority if it isn't already filed. Your person won't need to say much. What they do need is the authority to agree a date, to say whether you'll file a counter claim, and to answer if the tribunal asks whether settlement has been tried.
When Advocate B.K. Singh gets a client ready for a first DIAC sitting, he asks one question early. Who in your company can say yes to a timetable without phoning anyone? If the honest answer is nobody, he gets that authority in writing before the date. A tribunal won't wait while a manager tries to reach the MD. And the date fixed during that pause is rarely the one you wanted.
3. Has every document reached all parties and DIAC?
Service causes more first-day trouble than anything else. Rule 4.1 says the Request for Arbitration must carry proof that it was served on the other parties, and Rule 5.1 says the Response must confirm it was served at the same time. Once the tribunal's in place, Rule 3.5 says every written communication with it must go simultaneously to all other parties and to DIAC. Rule 3.6 says that otherwise it isn't taken on record. DIAC also has an e-filing module, where parties file pleadings and arbitrators upload orders.
Before the date, make a short table. Each document filed, the date, how it went to each party and to DIAC, and your proof (courier receipt, email with delivery record, portal acknowledgment). If the other side says it never got something, you can answer in one line. Are you the respondent, and did the Request reach you late or at an old address? Say so, and give the date you actually received it. Your 30 days for the Response under Rule 5.1 run from receipt.
4. Have we paid DIAC's charges and deposits, and is a demand pending?
Check where you stand on payment before the date. The administrative charges should have gone with the Request or the Response. The deposit for the arbitrators' fees is usually demanded around the time the tribunal is constituted. Under Rule 33.5, if a deposit isn't made within 30 days of its due date, the Centre or the tribunal can terminate the claim or counter claim it covers. Tribunals often look at the deposit position at the first sitting. If yours is overdue, you're on the back foot from the start.
Has the other side not paid its share? Decide before the hearing whether you'll pay it and recover it as costs, or ask for claim and counter claim to be assessed separately. Our guide on paying DIAC fees and the cost of missing a deposit covers the mechanics and the deadlines.
5. Is there an objection to the arbitrator, or to jurisdiction, that has to go in now?
Some objections can't wait. Each arbitrator files a disclosure in the Sixth Schedule format under Section 12. Go through it line by line. Maybe it mentions a past engagement with the other side, or you know something it leaves out. If that gives you a justifiable doubt about the arbitrator's independence or impartiality, you get 15 days from finding out to mount a challenge (Section 13(2)). Rule 10 sets out how DIAC handles challenges, and the processing deposit you'll pay. Our guide on challenging a DIAC arbitrator explains when it's worth doing. Seventh Schedule grounds are a different matter. If the arbitrator is, say, an employee or adviser of a party, that person is ineligible under Section 12(5), and only an express written agreement made after the dispute arose can waive it.
Jurisdiction objections run on another clock. Under Section 16(2), a plea that the tribunal lacks jurisdiction has to be raised no later than the statement of defence. That covers arguments like there being no valid arbitration agreement, the claim falling outside it, or a pre-arbitration step being skipped. You don't have to argue it on day one. But tell the tribunal at the first sitting that you'll be raising it, so the timetable can let it be heard first if that's sensible. Going along with the schedule and saying nothing won't help you later.
Section 4 of the Act adds a quieter risk. If you carry on with the arbitration knowing that a rule or agreed requirement wasn't followed, and you don't object promptly, you're treated as having waived the objection. Something wrong with how the tribunal was formed? Put it in writing, and early.
6. What timetable can we really keep?
The tribunal will propose dates and ask both sides what they think. Section 23(4) sets a target of six months to finish pleadings, counted from when the arbitrators receive notice of their appointment. Section 29A then gives twelve months from completion of pleadings for the award, with six more by consent. DIAC tribunals take these limits seriously. And Rule 17.2 lets a defence, set-off or counter claim be foreclosed if a pleading deadline is missed.
Pick dates you'll actually hit. Bravado on the day helps nobody. A week or so before, get your lawyer to estimate how many weeks the claim or defence needs to be finalised. Then ask your own staff how long digging out the papers will take. Is a witness going to be abroad in June, or buried in year-end closing in March? A claimant normally pushes for speed, and a respondent normally wants breathing room to plead a counter claim properly. Neither is unreasonable. The trouble starts when someone accepts three weeks in the meeting and files for an adjournment twenty days later. Our guide on how long a DIAC arbitration takes explains how the clocks run and what happens when they're missed.
7. Which documents and witnesses will we rely on, and are they ready?
Section 19 frees the tribunal from the Evidence Act and the CPC. In practice, though, most DIAC matters run a route any Tis Hazari litigant would recognise. You file documents along with pleadings. Each side admits or denies the other's papers. Issues get framed. Then come affidavits of evidence and cross-examination. Since this route is fixed at the first sitting, walk in with a rough idea of what your case depends on. Think about the contract, the POs, the GST invoices, the ledger, the emails and the WhatsApp messages. Who on your staff can explain them? Is anything lying with a third party?
Look at electronic records early. A tribunal may be more relaxed about them than a court. But if the other side disputes a chat or an email, you'll want a certificate of the kind courts require under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, and a person who can explain where the record came from. Our guide on how emails and WhatsApp chats are proved explains the certificate. If an important witness is a third party who won't come on their own, the tribunal can let you apply to the court for help in taking evidence under Section 27. Documents in Hindi or another language? Raise it at the first sitting, because Rule 21.2 expects translation arrangements to be sorted out then.
Before any first hearing, Advocate B.K. Singh asks the client for a one-page list of dates, running from the contract to the notice, with the document that proves each date written beside it. The gaps jump out. Better to find a missing purchase order a week before the first sitting than in cross-examination a year later.
8. Do we need an urgent interim order from the tribunal?
Is the other side selling off assets? Encashing a bank guarantee? Passing your designs to a competitor, or doing something else that would leave you holding a paper award? Talk to your lawyer about a Section 17 application for interim measures, filed before the first sitting or at it. An order the tribunal makes under Section 17 can be enforced just like a court's order. It doesn't cost extra either. Rule 7(ii) of the DIAC (Administrative Costs and Arbitrators' Fees) Rules, 2018 charges no separate fee for it.
After the tribunal is in place, going to court under Section 9 is usually closed off, unless relief from the tribunal wouldn't be efficacious. The tribunal is your normal port of call. If you're the respondent and the claimant has already filed an interim application, ask for a short, fixed time to reply. Make sure your reply deals with the facts, not just the law. Our guide on getting interim relief in a DIAC arbitration compares going to court with going to the tribunal.
9. Is it worth raising settlement or mediation now?
Don't be surprised if the arbitrator asks, on the very first day, whether you've talked settlement. Have your line ready. Rule 29 of the DIAC Rules lets both sides, once the arbitration has begun, jointly ask for a pause so they can try to sort things out. If the request is joint, the tribunal must grant it. You're free to choose the mediator. It could even be a person on the Delhi High Court Mediation and Conciliation Centre's panel.
Raising mediation isn't weakness. Not if it's done on terms. A fixed period, a named mediator, and pleadings resuming automatically if talks fail. It's a mistake when it's used to buy time by someone with no authority to settle. Tribunals notice that. We'd advise against it. Our guide on mediation at DIAC, before or during an arbitration explains how it works and when it's worth a try.
10. What will this hearing cost, and what if we need an adjournment?
DIAC doesn't bill you separately for the first sitting. You've already paid the deposits, and the tribunal's fee comes out of them in stages under Schedule F of the Fee Rules, not hearing by hearing. Where money leaks is delay. Want an adjournment and the hearing is under 15 days away? Rule 21.4 makes you pay Rs 3,000 with the request and back it with cogent reasons and documents. Filing it adjourns nothing by itself (Rule 21.5). The tribunal weighs it on merits and may impose conditions. And at the end, Rule 32.4 lets the tribunal look at how efficiently each side ran the case when it decides costs.
Just not showing up? Rule 26.3 and Section 25 of the Act let the tribunal carry on without you if there's no sufficient cause. A respondent that doesn't file its defence isn't treated as having admitted the claim. But the case moves on without its side of the story. Ask your lawyer what the next three sittings will probably involve and what each will need from you. That way nothing catches you off guard.
DIAC hearing preparation: a seven-day plan
A working plan for the week before a first DIAC sitting. Change it if an application is listed.
Day 7: read the whole file
Go through the notice of hearing, the Request and Response, any statement of claim or defence already filed, the arbitrators' disclosures and any DIAC fee demand. Write down everything that's pending.
Day 6: sort out authority
Decide who'll attend for the company and get a board resolution or authority letter ready. Check that counsel's vakalatnama or authority is on DIAC's record.
Day 5: check service and payment
Make the service table. Confirm every deposit and charge is paid and keep the receipts handy. Anything due, pay it now.
Day 4: decide on objections
Sit with your lawyer and decide whether any challenge to an arbitrator, or any jurisdiction objection, needs raising, and by when. If a challenge is due, file it. Don't save it for the hearing.
Day 3: build the timetable
Work out realistic dates for each pleading, each round of documents and each witness. Write down the schedule you'll propose, and a fallback.
Day 2: interim relief and settlement
Decide whether you want a Section 17 order, and what you'll say if the tribunal asks about mediation. Agree internally how far any settlement authority goes.
Day 1: test and put it together
If it's online, test the video link. Keep the indexed file and the list of dates ready. Send any short note the tribunal asked for to all parties and DIAC at the same time.
The early stages of a DIAC case: what happens, how long, what it costs
| Stage | Usual timing | What happens | Costs (no lawyer fees shown) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Request and Response | Response within 30 days of getting the Request (Rule 5.1) | Claims, defences and nominations go on record | Each side pays administrative charges on the DIAC schedule; check the current figure |
| Constitution of tribunal | Often a few weeks to a few months after the Request | Arbitrators appointed; Section 12 disclosures made | Demand for the arbitrators' fee deposit, usually 50:50 |
| First procedural meeting (preliminary hearing) | Soon after the tribunal is appointed (Rule 21.2) | Timetable, mode of hearing, translation, any pending applications | Nothing extra beyond the deposits |
| Pleadings | Target of six months from appointment (Section 23(4)) | Claim, defence, counter claim, reply | A further deposit if a counter claim or amendment pushes up the sum in dispute |
| Admission and denial, issues | A few weeks after pleadings close | Documents admitted or disputed; issues framed | The first 20 percent of the tribunal's fee is released when issues are framed (Schedule F) |
| Evidence | Several months, depending on the witnesses | Affidavits, then cross-examination | Later fee slabs released after each side's evidence |
| Adjournment requests | Any time | A written request with reasons (Rule 21.4) | Rs 3,000 if filed less than 15 days before the hearing |
DIAC publishes a fee schedule based on the sum in dispute, and what you pay depends on the claim and counter claim taken together. Lawyers' fees are separate. We discuss ours at the first meeting and agree them in writing, stage by stage.
What to have ready on the day
- The notice of hearing, and whatever the tribunal last sent on procedure
- The Request for Arbitration, the Response and any pleadings filed so far, indexed and paginated
- The arbitration clause or agreement, plus any Delhi High Court referral order
- Every arbitrator's Section 12 disclosure
- Your service table, with proof that everything reached all parties and DIAC
- DIAC's fee demands and your payment receipts
- The board resolution or authority letter for whoever's attending for the company
- A one-page list of dates, each with the document that backs it up
- The timetable you'll propose, and a fallback
- A note of any objection, interim application or translation issue you plan to raise
An invented example: an Okhla exporter's first DIAC sitting
This is a made-up case. A Panipat yarn supplier starts a DIAC arbitration against an Okhla garment exporter for Rs 85 lakh in unpaid invoices. The exporter thinks the yarn was defective and says it lost a European order because of it. The owner gets notice of a preliminary hearing by video conference, twelve days away. He assumes his lawyer will deal with it alone.
Then they sit down with the ten questions, and the picture shifts. The Response is on file, but nobody ever paid the respondent's deposit. That gets fixed within the week. The owner's son, who dealt with the supplier day to day, gets a board resolution to attend. The disclosure by the sole arbitrator is read and raises no flags. The exporter means to counter claim for the cancelled European order. For that it needs a Faridabad lab's inspection reports and its correspondence with the buyer. So its lawyer asks for eight weeks to file defence and counter claim, against the claimant's four, and gives the reasons. A handful of the buyer's emails are in German. Translation gets flagged.
On the day, the arbitrator allows six weeks and notes that translations will come in with the counter claim. Then the mediation question. The exporter says it would consider a Rule 29 pause after pleadings, when each side has seen the other's papers. Forty minutes, and it's done. Dull? Yes. That's what you want. The deposit is sorted, no objection has slipped away, and the dates are ones the exporter can keep. None of this happened, of course. A real dispute could turn out differently.
Mistakes businesses make at the first DIAC sitting
- Sending the lawyer alone, with no instructions. Then dates, counter claims and mediation get decided without the business, or don't get decided at all.
- Saying yes to a timetable you can't meet. It feels cooperative on the day. Later it costs you credibility, and maybe a pleading that gets foreclosed.
- Holding back an objection. A challenge to an arbitrator runs on a 15-day clock, and a jurisdiction plea has to be in the defence. Waiting for a better moment can mean you've waived it.
- Forgetting the deposit. An unpaid deposit can end your claim or counter claim under Rule 33.5, however well the hearing goes.
- Emailing the arbitrator on the side. Every communication has to go to all parties and DIAC at the same time, or it isn't taken on record.
- Using mediation to stall. Tribunals can tell when a party asks for time to talk and then turns up with nothing to offer.
- Leaving translation till later. Papers in Hindi or a foreign language need arrangements, and the start is the easiest time to fix them.
How the first hearing differs for claimants, respondents and smaller businesses
If you're the claimant, you want momentum. A firm schedule, a clean deposit position and, if the respondent is moving assets out, an interim application listed early. Rule 4.3 lets you file your full statement of claim with the Request. If you've done that, you're ahead, because the tribunal can go straight to the defence. Our guide on writing a statement of claim for DIAC explains what goes in it.
If you're the respondent, you want room to answer properly. Enough time for a defence and any counter claim. Objections kept alive. No default you could have avoided. If you've only just been served, say so plainly and ask for a reasonable period. That's far better than agreeing to a short date and missing it.
Small business or startup up against a bigger opponent? The first hearing is also your chance to ask for things that keep costs down. A sole arbitrator if that isn't already settled. Hearings by video conference. Written submissions in place of long oral arguments. And a cap on the length of pleadings, which Rule 19.2 lets the tribunal set. If both sides agree before or at the time of appointment, fast track on written papers is another option.
If you'd like help with a DIAC claim or defence from the very beginning, our page on our DIAC arbitration work explains how the firm prepares for each stage, the first procedural meeting included.
What to do this week
Find the notice of hearing and note the date, the mode and what's listed. Then go through the ten questions with your lawyer and write down an answer to each one, even where the answer is 'nothing to do'. Pay anything outstanding. Settle who's attending and with what authority. Draft your timetable.
Not represented yet, and the first sitting is close? Don't wait till the day before to find counsel. A lawyer with a week can check service, deposits and objections. One with a day can only ask for time. Our DIAC arbitration practice page lists what we need from you to get started.
If you'd like your DIAC papers checked before a first hearing, or want updates on how DIAC tribunals and the Delhi High Court are dealing with timetables and objections, you can send them to Advocate B.K. Singh's team through our contact page.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to attend the DIAC preliminary hearing myself?
Your lawyer can appear for you. But a company should send someone who knows the dispute and can agree dates and answer questions about settlement. If you're an individual party, it's sensible to attend even if you don't speak. On video, it costs you very little.
Can the first DIAC hearing happen online?
Yes. Rule 26.1 of the DIAC Rules lets the tribunal, after consulting the parties, hold hearings in person or by video conference. Procedural meetings are often online. Check the Centre's current practice and confirm the link well ahead.
Will witnesses be cross-examined at the first hearing?
Usually not. The first sitting fixes the timetable for pleadings, documents and issues. Evidence comes months later. If an interim application is listed, the tribunal may hear arguments on it, but oral evidence on day one is unusual.
What's this Sixth Schedule disclosure everyone mentions?
It's the form in which an arbitrator discloses relationships or circumstances that might raise doubts about independence or impartiality, under Section 12 of the Act. Read it the moment you get it. If something worries you, the 15-day window to challenge under Section 13(2) may already be running.
Can I file my statement of claim at the first hearing?
You can file it with the Request for Arbitration under Rule 4.3, or within whatever time the tribunal fixes at the first procedural meeting under Rule 16.1. Filing early helps a claimant who wants short dates. Whatever you file must go to all parties and DIAC at the same time.
What if the respondent doesn't turn up to the first sitting?
Under Rule 26.3 and Section 25 of the Act, the tribunal can go ahead if the absence is without sufficient cause. It'll usually check that notice was properly served, and it may give one more chance. The case won't stop just because one side stays away.
Should I bring original documents to a DIAC hearing?
Not to the first sitting, as a rule, unless the tribunal has asked. Keep originals safe and within reach, since they may be needed for inspection or at evidence. Indexed copies or a digital file will do for a procedural meeting.
Can the timetable fixed at the first hearing be changed later?
Yes, but only on a written application with cogent reasons under Rule 21.4, and the tribunal decides on merits. A request made close to a hearing carries a fee and may come with conditions. You're much better off asking for realistic dates at the start.
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.