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M/S Tinna Rubber and Infrastructure Limited vs. Mr. Pankaj Gandhi

Arbitration Petition · 2026:DHC:7710Decided 9 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
ARB.P. 745/2026CNR: DLHC010176142026
Justice Om Prakash Shukla

Background

A commercial dispute arose from goods supplied under invoices that carried an arbitration clause (Clause 18) printed on their reverse side. The buyer had accepted the goods and made part-payments but later denied ever seeing or agreeing to that arbitration clause, claiming the invoices he actually received were single-page documents without any such terms.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that at this preliminary stage, only a prima facie case for the existence of an arbitration agreement needs to be shown, and the absence of a separate signature specifically on the arbitration clause does not by itself defeat that. Since the buyer had accepted goods and made payments against the invoices without objecting at the time, the Court found this sufficient to proceed and appointed a sole arbitrator, leaving deeper factual disputes about whether the terms were truly agreed to be resolved by the arbitrator.

Lesson Learnt

When arbitration clauses are printed on the reverse of invoices, courts generally won't let a party who accepted goods and paid under those invoices later deny ever agreeing to arbitrate, but detailed factual disputes about this are ultimately for the arbitrator, not the court, to sort out.

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