Indu Malhotra

Family Background and education

Born in 1956 in Bangalore to late Shri Om Prakash Malhotra, Senior Advocate and late Satya Malhotra. Shri Om Prakash Malhotra was a Senior Advocate in the Supreme Court, and a distinguished author who brought out the treatise on the Law of Industrial Disputes. He published six editions of this Commentary. The Commentary received wide acclaim. During his later years, he authored a commentary on the Law & Practice of Arbitration and Conciliation, and took out two editions of this book.

Indu Malhotra is the youngest child of late Om Prakash Malhotra. She did her schooling from Carmel Convent School, New Delhi. After she finished her schooling, she did her B.A. (Hons.) Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi, and later did her Masters in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. After obtaining her Masters Degree, she worked briefly as a Lecturer in Political Science in Miranda House College and Vivekanand College, Delhi University. She did her Bachelor of Laws from the Delhi University during the period 1979 to 1982.

Entry to the Bar

Indu Malhotra joined the legal profession in 1983, and was enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi. In 1988, she qualified as an Advocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court, and secured the 1st position in the examination, for which she was awarded the Mukesh Goswami Memorial Prize on Law Day.

She was appointed as the Standing Counsel for the State of Haryana in the Supreme Court from 1991 to 1996. She represented various statutory corporations like Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), before the Supreme Court.

In 2007, she was designated as a Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court of India. She became the second woman to be designated by the Supreme Court after a gap of over 30 years.

She has been appointed Amicus Curiae by different benches of the Supreme Court in some matters. Recently, she was appointed as an amicus for restoration of Jaipur as a heritage city.

Some of the important cases in which she has appeared are: India Oxygen Vs. Collector of Central Excise [1998 Suppl. SCC 658]; Union of India Vs. Harjeet Singh Sandhu [(2001) 5 SCC 593]; SBP & Co. Vs. Patel Engineering Ltd. [(2005) 8 SCC 618]; Jaya Shah Vs. Bombay Stock Exchange [(2004) 1 SCC 160]; Harshad C. Modi Vs. DLF [(2005) 7 SCC 791]; Everest Copiers Vs. State of Tamil Nadu [(1996) 5 SCC 390]; Khaleel Ahmed Dakhani Vs. Hatti Gold Mines Co. Ltd. [(2000) 3 SCC 755]; Harish Verma & Ors. Vs. Ajay Srivastava [(2003) 8 SCC 69]; Hindustan Poles Corporation Vs. Commissioner of Central Excise [(2006) 4 SCC 85]; R. Kalyani Vs. Janak C. Mehta & Ors. [(2009) 1 SCC 516]; Ramesh Kumari Vs. State (NCT of Delhi); Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. Vs. S.B.I. Home Finance Ltd. & Ors [(2011) 5 SCC 532 ]; Yograj Infrastructure Ltd. Vs. Ssang Yong Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. [(2011) 9 SCC 735 ]; Union of India Vs. Master Construction Co. [(2011) 12 SCC 349]; P.R. Shah, Shares and Stock Broker (P) Ltd. Vs. B.H.H. Securities (P) Ltd. [(2012) 1 SCC 594]; A.C. Narayanan Vs. State of Maharashtra [(2013) 11 SCALE 360]; Pune Municipal Corporation & Another Vs. Harakchand Misirimal Solanki & Others, [(2014) 3 SCC 183].

Some of the MNCs represented by Indu Malhotra are: ANZ Grindlays Bank, KPMG, Agilent Technologies, Medtronic, British Petroleum (BP), Pepsico India, Indian Olympic Association (IOA), Medanta – The Medicity.

Indu Malhotra has specialised in the law of arbitration, and has appeared in various domestic and international commercial arbitrations. She has recently authored an exhaustive and illuminating commentary on the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 published by Thomson Reuters. Eminent jurists have described it as a legal classic on arbitration.

Indu Malhotra is appearing in certain PILs in the Supreme Court, on issues of public interest. For instance, she is appearing in a PIL filed by an NGO viz. Save Life Foundation, on the issue of providing protection to Bystanders who provide assistance to road accident victims, and for framing guidelines for a Good Samaritan law in India. She has also been appearing in a PIL on the issue of challenging certain provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act with respect to protruding iron rods from transport carriers, which have caused fatal injuries. She has represented the National Commission for Women, in certain matters of public importance. She has also taken the lead in a public interest petition filed for framing of sentencing guidelines with respect to awarding punishment by the courts in rape cases, and another PIL on discrimination against women make-up artists in the film industry.

She has been a member of various Committees constituted by the Supreme Court from time to time. She is one of the members of the Vishakha Committee constituted by the Supreme Court of India. She was nominated as a member of the Editorial Committee for publication of the official journal "Nyaya Deep" of the National Legal Services Authority during the period 2004–2013. She was nominated as a member of the Central Authority of the National Legal Services Authority, a statutory body constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 on 7 January 2009. She was appointed a member of the Supreme Court (Middle Income Group) Legal Aid Society, constituted by the Supreme Court of India from 15 July 2005 for 3 years. She was nominated as a member of the Indo-British Legal Forum held in January 2003 and again in 2008. She represented India in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, held by the Commonwealth Secretariat in May 1998 at Dhaka, Bangladesh. In 2005, she was nominated by the Chief Justice of India in the category of ‘eminent persons’ as a member of the General Council of the Gujarat National Law University

She is engaged in social and charitable work, and is a Trustee of Save Life Foundation, which is a non-profit, non-Governmental organisation. Save Life has been formed with the objective of prevention of road accidents, and formulating a system for providing immediate post-accident response to save the life of the victims. Save Life has filed two PILs in the Supreme Court, one for framing guidelines for protection of Good Samaritans who render timely assistance to victims of road accidents; and the second one for striking out certain provisions in the Motor Vehicles Act which permit carriers to transport iron rods protruding from the carriers which have caused a large number of deaths.

She has been nominated by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to the Central Council and Disciplinary Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, a statutory body established under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949.

She has been empanelled as an Arbitrator with several Institutional Arbitration bodies like Indian Council of Arbitration (ICA), Delhi International Arbitration Centre (DAC), ASSOCHAM etc.

Publications and academic pursuits

Indu Malhotra has authored a Commentary on the Law and Practice of Arbitration in India, which was released on 7 April 2014 by the Hon'ble Chief Justice of India. She has published articles in various journals and magazines on:

Fast Track Arbitration published in the Indian Council of Arbitration and Quarterly April – June 2006 Res-Judicata in Arbitration published in Nyaya Deep, October 2004 Vol. V, Issue 1 Empowerment of Women published in Nyaya Deep, official publication of Supreme Court.

She has been invited to deliver lectures on arbitration as a Guest Lecturer at the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR), Hyderabad and Amity University, New Delhi.