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Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. v. Santosh Cordeiro & Anr.

Not available · 2026 INSC 5Decided 5 Jan 2026
Not available
Justice K.V. Viswanathan · Justice J.B. Pardiwala

Background

A licensee vacated leased office premises citing COVID-19 force majeure; the licensor later demanded arrears for the remaining lock-in period and invoked arbitration. The licensee argued only the Small Causes Court (not an arbitrator) could hear such disputes under a special Mumbai law.

Decision Breakdown

At the limited Section 11(6-A) stage, a court only checks whether an arbitration agreement exists, not full arbitrability, which is for the arbitrator to decide. Giving a special court jurisdiction over a category of disputes does not by itself bar arbitration of related contractual claims.

Lesson Learnt

A special court's jurisdiction over certain landlord/tenant disputes does not automatically invalidate an arbitration clause: the arbitrator decides arbitrability first.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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