Institute of Law, Nirma University

Arbitration, Conciliation &

Alternate Dispute Redressal System

Multi-Tier Arbitration Agreement

2022 – 2023

Semester VII

Shreyansh Ransingh
 ARBITRATION AGREEMENT

IN THE CHENNAI ARBITRATION COUNCIL, CHENNAi

MULTI-TIER ARBITRATION AGREEMENT

1. This agreement has been instituted between the following Interior Consultants head-
placed at Sentry Road, Chennai and based developers based at Tech Park, Chennai,
the parties who have enacted the agreement, shall hereon be referred to as PARTIES.
2. The undersigned parties agree to the terms and conditions of this ARBITRATION
AGREEMENT ("Agreement") in complete settlement and resolution of all claims
made or potentially asserted in this transaction. The acceptance and execution of this
Agreement constitutes an acknowledgment of any fact, issue, or liability in this
matter.
3. The PARTIES have instituted several commercial agreements dated 12/12/2012 and
separate arbitration agreement shall be prepared and signed for each of them. In case
of disputes arising out of the commercial arrangements between the parties, parties
shall first avail the process of arbitration for the same dispute.
4. The PARTIES have in their best interests decided that the Arbitration proceedings
shall be conducted at Connington palace of Hotel Shergil, Sahaj, Chennai. If the
designated premises were to be unavailable during the conduct of Arbitration, The
PARTIES shall mutually agree and decide upon an appropriate venue.
5. The proceedings shall be conducted in English with translations and transcripts to be
provided whenever required by either of the PARTIES. All the documents submitted
to the tribunal shall be in English and if not the document should be accompanied
with an English translation when presented to the TRIBUNAL.
6. The PARTIES to eliminate further questions and doubts that may arise during the
arbitration have agreed on Indian Arbitration Act, 1996 as applicable law to this
arbitration and the rules under the act shall apply in areas this agreement stays silent
 The city of Chennaishall be the place of arbitration, with INDIA being the seat of
arbitration.
7. The PARTIES shall withdraw or put on hold proceedings of any pending lawsuits
filed in court and any other connecting litigations filed before any other court.
Furthermore, upon successful completion of arbitration both PARTIES are free to
pursue any legal recourse and this agreement does not preclude or prevent them from
doing so in any manner whatsoever.
8. Unless specifically mentioned differently in this agreement, the PARTIES agree and
undertake to pay each half of the expenses of arbitration expenses as notified before
the TRIBUNAL as advance and guarantee amount.
Both Parties shall ensure to pay their share of total expense of conduct of Arbitration
Proceedings determined and approved by the TRIBUNAL.
9. Both PARTIES acknowledge that the other party has a claim against them for any
type of damages to be obtained or claimed from the other party, including but not
limited to: Ordinary damages, Special damages, and suits for breach of contract.
Unless otherwise arising out of unforeseeable circumstances, both parties agree to
hear and provide fair opportunity to the other party in any and all claims, cases,
demands, and lawsuits that are presently known to them or unknown to them, arising
out of the commercial agreement between the PARTIES.
10. The PARTIES unequivocally agree to submit their claims to a bench of five (5)
arbitrators who shall be known as the TRIBUNAL henceforth. The nomination
process of the arbitrators is as follows: Both the parties shall appoint two arbitrators,
the four nominated arbitrators shall deliberate and appoint the fifth arbitrator based
on a majority vote within 30 days from their nomination.
11. PARTIES shall ensure that they communicate their list of nominated parties within
30 days of receiving claims from the other party with the intention to arbitrate with a
notice for the same.
12. The PARTIES however still retain the right to challenge the appointment of an
arbitrator and if they so choose the PARTIES can choose to do so under the
procedure provide by the Indian Arbitration Act.
13. In the event the four nominated arbitrators are unable to deliberate and decide upon
the final fifth arbitrator within the stipulated, the arbitrator shall be appointed by the
ChennaiArbitration Centre. If the PARTIES do not agree with the appointment by the
 Chennai Arbitration Centre, they mutually can set aside the appointment and
approach the Chennai High Court for appointment of the fifth arbitrator.
14. Subject to paragraph 12 and 15 where an arbitrator has to be replaced or substituted
during the arbitral proceedings, the following procedure shall be applied. The
substitute arbitrator shall be appointed by consensus of the PARTIES, The
party shall communicate details of its proposed arbitrator and send a notice of the
same to the other party. The other party on receiving the proposal, shall communicate
its decision regarding the same within 15 days from receipt of the notice.
15. The TRIBUNAL shall establish a tentative time-table of arbitration to address all the
issues and claims of the PARTIES, the TRIBUNAL shall at any time invite parties to
share facts and extend the time-table over a period of by exercising its jurisdiction ,
the tribunal shall ensure to avoid unnecessary delay and expense and provide a fair
and efficient environment for resolution.
16. Communications by either of the PARTIES to the TRIBUNAL shall be
communicated and shared with all other parties, such communications may be made
only as allowed by the tribunal and this AGREEMENT.
17. The written statements (including statement of claim and defence) shall be presented
to the TRIBUNAL not exceeding 45 days, the tribunal however can extend these
limits if it is of the conclusion such delay is justified.
18. The PARTIES can avail interim measures and apply for emergency relief as provided
under the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996. The rules provided in Section
9 of the Arbitration act shall apply here.
19. The PARTIES shall have the burden of proving their facts in order to support their
claim or defence, where the tribunal might require PARTIES to produce documents,
evidence, exhibits and other evidence as required. The tribunal shall determine the
relevance, admissibility, weight and materiality of evidence.
20. The TRIBUNAL shall have the to call for expert witnesses who may be any
individual, notwithstanding relation to a party. The Indian Arbitration and
Conciliation Act 1996, shall govern the rules of appointment and conduct of expert
witness.
21. The TRIBUNAL may after hearing all proof, submissions and witnesses, if there are
no further submissions may close the hearing. If it considers it necessary owing to
 exceptional circumstance, its own initiative or application of a party, the TRIBUNAL
may reopen hearings before award is made.
22. Any award or decision by the TRIBUNAL shall be made by a vote of majority held
between the appointed arbitrators, An arbitrator has to provide reasonable explanation
to the TRIBUNAL when recusing himself from voting.
23. When questions arise where there is no clear majority, the presiding adjudicator alone
may decide on the matter, the decision in question will however be subject to review
by the TRIBUNAL.
24. The Arbitral TRIBUNAL may make separate and distinct awards with relation to
different claims as required. However, the awards made shall be in writing and
binding on the parties. The TRIBUNAL shall provide reasons for the same until and
unless the parties have expressly agreed that no reasons are to be provided.
25. The arbitrators shall ensure that the copy of the award is supplied to both the parties
and the confidentiality is maintained as required by the PARTIES in this arbitration
proceedings. Award may be only made public in order to protect or pursue a legal
right or legal proceedings before a competent court.
26. If the parties to the arbitration agree on a settlement of dispute before conclusion of
the arbitration proceedings, the PARTIES shall record the settlement in form of an
agreement and communicate the same to the tribunal within 10 days of settlement.
27. The TRIBUNAL on receiving communication of settlement, shall inform parties of
its intention to terminate the proceedings. After receiving the consent of the parties
the tribunal shall pass an order for the same, however the tribunal is not required to
give reasons for such an award.
28. The TRIBUNAL shall have the power fix costs of the final order as it deems
justified. Where, “costs” shall include:
a. The fees of TRIBUNAL and Arbitrators to be fixed according to the Indian
Arbitration and Conciliation act;
b. Reasonable travel and transit related costs incurred by arbitrators;
c. The cost of expert advice and hiring expert assistance as required by the
arbitral tribunal;
d. Reasonable travel and transit related costs incurred by witnesses, however, it
is subject to approval by the tribunal;
 e. Legal and other costs incurred by PARTIES in conduct of the arbitration to
the extent determined by the arbitration tribunal.
29. The fees and expenses shall be a reasonable in amount, taking into account the,
complexity and the time spent on the relevant circumstances of the dispute.
30. Following the constitution of the TRIBUNAL, the arbitrators shall inform the clients
of the proposed fees and explain the manner of calculation of the same; subject to
Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act and subsequent RULES passed and published
in the National Gazette.
31. The TRIBUNAL shall, based on facts, arguments and principle place costs on
unsuccessful party. However, the tribunal may also choose to apportion costs
between the parties taking circumstances into consideration.
32. The TRIBUNAL may require the parties to deposit an equal advance amount for the
purposes of advance costs of arbitration and also collect supplementary deposits. The
parties have to provide consent for the set advance cost of arbitration.
33. The PARTIES shall ensure that the deposit requests are fulfilled within 30 days from
communication of required payment, on default by the party the TRIBUNAL may
order the parties to make required payment. If such payment is not made, the tribunal
may order suspension or termination of proceedings.
34. The proceedings of the TRIBUNAL can be recorded and stored in digital form in a
camera unless the PARTIES agree otherwise.
35. The PARTIES acknowledge and agree that the terms of this agreement and the
original purchase agreement constitute their only contracts, and neither party may
disclose any information, including but not limited to, the names, addresses,
occupations, terms of the purchase, the price, bank information, bank statements,
insurance information, or financing information. Either party might be sued for
damages by the other if any of the sensitive information included herein was
disclosed or leaked to the public. This Agreement shall not be filed with the Court in
the aforementioned action, save for enforcement reasons or as needed by a court
order, and shall not be disclosed to any other party, other than the parties, their
respective tax experts, and counsels.
36. This Arbitration Agreement is subject to approval by applicable regulatory rules,
regulations and agencies, if required by those agencies.
 37. The parties shall execute and exchange such other and further documents as may be
reasonably necessary to effectuate the terms and conditions of this Arbitration
Agreement.
38. The parties hereby understand and confirm that:
i) They have carefully reviewed this Arbitration Agreement;
ii) They have consulted with their counsels concerning this Arbitration Agreement;
iii) Any questions that they have pertaining to this Arbitration Agreement have been
answered and fully explained by their counsels;
iv) Their decision to execute this Arbitration Agreement was not based-on any
coercive action or statement, but rather on the free choice of individuals;
v) The representation, either written or oral, made by any person or entity other
than-those statements contained in this Arbitration Agreement, and specifically
was not based on any statement or representation made by any opposing party or
its counsel;
vi) This Arbitration Agreement constitutes the entire agreement and understanding
between the parties;
vii) They have entered into this Settlement Agreement of their own free will.

_________________________ ____________________________

Party 1 Party 2

_________________________ ____________________________

Counsel of Party 1 Counsel of Party 2