The governing law for Arbitration in India is the Arbitration & Conciliation Act 1996. It is heavily influenced by the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules 1976 & the 1985 UNICITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, provisions of the Indian Oath’s Act 1969 are also attracted.
There are certain features which distinguish arbitration from traditional litigation. Some of the features are-

• Role of the Courts have been minimised, their role is to refer parties to arbitration in presence of an arbitration agreement and for providing interim reliefs, and for the appointment of an arbitrator
• Section 11 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996 deals with the appointment of arbitrators and in the case of S.B.P & Co. the Supreme Court held the function under Section 11 to be of a judicial nature.
• ‘Arbitrators are masters of their own procedure’, they have the power of guiding their proceedings in the way they deem fit. Code of Civil Procedure, Evidence Act are not binding on the arbitration proceedings
• Supreme Court in the case of ‘TDM Infrastructure (P) Ltd. v. UE Development India (P) Ltd’ observed that companies incorporated in India have to make Indian law as the principal law of the arbitration proceedings.
• As per the case of Renu Sagar Power Co. Ltd v. General Electric Co., an award which is contrary to the public policy of India cannot be enforced in India and can be set aside.