Construction, Development and Infrastructure Disputes

Our Construction, Development and Infrastructure Disputes practice represents employers, contractors, sub-contractors, design consultants, lenders, and concessionaires through every stage of a project, from contract negotiation and risk allocation to formal proceedings and enforcement. We act in disputes arising under FIDIC, NEC, EPC, item-rate, lump-sum, hybrid annuity, and BOT contracts, as well as in matters governed by the standard form agreements of NHAI, MoRTH, Indian Railways, Metro Rail authorities, and state public works departments. Our clients operate across highways and bridges, metros and railways, power and renewables, oil and gas, ports, real estate, industrial parks, water and waste, and large building projects.

A construction dispute is never only a legal problem. Quantum sits inside critical path analyses, programmes, daywork records, and site instructions, while liability turns on contractual notice regimes, time bars, and the conduct of the engineer or independent engineer. Our team works alongside delay analysts, quantum experts, geotechnical specialists, and forensic accountants, and we draft pleadings and cross-examination strategies that the technical experts can actually stand behind. The aim is a strategy that the tribunal can follow, the client can fund, and the project can absorb without losing operational momentum.

We handle disputes through arbitration, dispute adjudication boards and dispute resolution boards, conciliation under Section 18 of the MSMED Act, 2006 where eligible, and litigation before commercial courts and the National Company Law Tribunal where group-level proceedings are in play. Where projects involve foreign EPC contractors, equipment suppliers, or lenders, we coordinate seamlessly across jurisdictions, drawing on our work before the ICC, SIAC, LCIA, HKIAC, MCIA, and DIAC. Throughout, we focus on protecting cash flow, preserving live project relationships where they can be preserved, and securing enforceable outcomes that translate into real recovery.

• Representing employers, contractors, and consultants in construction and infrastructure arbitrations under domestic and international institutional rules
• Building and defending delay and disruption claims, including critical path analyses, prolongation costs, and acceleration claims under FIDIC and EPC regimes
• Handling variation, change order, and scope dispute matters, including disputes over the engineer’s determinations and rate fixation
• Resolving quality, workmanship, and latent defect allegations, including the interface between defects liability periods and tortious claims
• Advising on termination, suspension, and cure notice regimes, including the strategic timing of contractual remedies and step-in by lenders
• Managing payment disputes and final account proceedings, including interim payment certificates, retention release, and on-account claims
• Pursuing and defending performance bond, advance bank guarantee, and parent guarantee claims, including injunctions against invocation
• Advising on design liability, professional negligence, and concurrent delay issues involving architects, engineers, and project management consultants
• Resolving technology, BIM, and smart infrastructure disputes, including data ownership, integration failures, and digital handover obligations
• Handling public-private partnership disputes, including concession agreements, termination payments, change in law claims, and force majeure events
• Advising on force majeure, change in law, and exceptional event claims in long-duration infrastructure contracts, including post-pandemic and supply-chain disruption claims