A prima facie valid arbitration agreement warrants appointment of an arbitrator under Section 11.

GD Goenka Pvt Ltd filed a petition under Section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, seeking appointment of an arbitrator for disputes arising from an Intellectual Property License Agreement and an Education Services Agreement, both dated 8 September 2020

The agreements contained arbitration clauses, with the IP License Agreement providing for a sole arbitrator and the ESA providing for a three-member tribunal

The parties agreed to first attempt mediation and, if it failed, to refer the disputes to arbitration; they did not dispute the existence of a valid arbitration agreement

Whether the disputes should first be referred to mediation, as the parties agreed

Whether the Court should appoint an arbitrator under Section 11 of the Act where the parties accepted the existence of a valid arbitration agreement

Under Section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, the Court’s enquiry is confined to examining the prima facie existence of an arbitration agreement

The arbitration clauses in the parties’ agreements provided for arbitration of unresolved disputes after a 30-business-day negotiation period; the IP License Agreement specified a sole arbitrator, while the ESA provided for a three-member tribunal

The order also required the appointed arbitrator to furnish the disclosure contemplated by Section 12(2) of the Act

The parties were ad idem on referring the matter to mediation and, if settlement was unsuccessful, to arbitration; the Court recorded that there was no dispute about the existence of a valid arbitration agreement

Applying the limited Section 11 enquiry, the Court found no impediment to appointing an arbitrator

It left questions including arbitrability, jurisdiction and limitation for determination by the arbitrator, and clarified that its observations would not affect the merits of the disputes

If mediation failed, Mr. Abhay Sahai, Advocate, was appointed Sole Arbitrator, to enter upon the reference within three weeks of the mediation report recording failure

The arbitration is to proceed under the aegis of DIAC, with fees as per its Schedule of Fees; the petition was disposed of accordingly