Parens Patrice
People come to us at a difficult hour. We meet that hour with light — a clear view of the law, a calm map of the forum, and a path that can end in a just settlement or a well-fought hearing.
Conflict drains families, companies and public institutions alike. The chambers exists to restore orientation: what the statute requires, what the record will support, what a tribunal is likely to ask, and how a lawful peace — if available — can be reached without surrendering rights that must be preserved.
The chambers
Parens Patrice is a New Delhi–based full-service dispute resolution practice appearing before the Supreme Court of India, the Delhi High Court, specialised tribunals, and arbitral forums. Founded by lawyers trained under former judges and senior advocates, the firm combines appellate advocacy with deep trial experience — with particular strength in domestic and international commercial arbitration, commercial litigation, and civil disputes.
From the first conference, the chambers seeks to give the instructing party a map: which forum has jurisdiction, what the record already shows, where the pressure points of evidence lie, and whether the wiser course is interim relief, a full trial, an arbitral reference, an appeal, or a structured settlement. That map is written in plain language, then tested against statutes and precedent before a single pleading is filed.
Partners of the firm have served as Central Government Senior Counsel, sit on panels of ministries, PSUs and statutory bodies, teach and adjudicate at law schools, and publish critical commentary on important judgments. The same discipline that shapes a Supreme Court brief is brought to a District Court recovery suit or a family mediation — because the client’s peace of mind depends on coherence, not on the grandeur of the forum alone.
Read the full story of the firm
Culture of work
Chambers work here is measured by the quality of the brief, the honesty of the advice, and the dignity of the forum. Partners prepare as if every matter may travel from a trial court to the Supreme Court — because many do. Original research, ethical independence, and a preference for settlement where settlement serves justice are the daily habits of the practice.
The culture is deliberately unhurried at the stage of comprehension and deliberately firm at the stage of advocacy. Conferences are used to listen; research is used to decide; pleadings are used to frame; and hearings are used to persuade. Technology — including continuing education in emerging legal tools — is treated as a servant of craft, never as a substitute for judgement.
We decline the factory model of litigation. Each matter receives original research, a clear procedural map, and advocacy that can stand before the highest court. A short list of well-prepared briefs is preferred to a crowded diary of half-understood files.
Trial craft, High Court writs, Supreme Court appellate work, and arbitration are coordinated — so the client is not briefed in fragments. The same facts are not told differently to different forums; strategy travels with the record.
Mediation is not a retreat from the law. Where a durable peace is possible, we pursue it from the first conference; where it is not, we contest with discipline. Partners known for cross-examination and courtroom stamina are equally prepared to persuade parties toward resolution when years of delay have already exacted their cost.
Practice
Our practice areas are not a catalogue of every dispute imaginable. They are the fields in which the partners have spent years preparing pleadings, examining witnesses, briefing senior counsel, sitting as arbitrators, and appearing before the Supreme Court, the High Court, trial courts and specialised tribunals. Each area below opens into a fuller account of approach, forums and the advocates who lead the work.
Domestic & International
Domestic and international commercial arbitration, with distinctive strength in construction and infrastructure disputes for government and PSU clients — and partners who also sit as empanelled arbitrators.
Business disputes
Recovery suits, breach of contract, shareholder and partnership conflicts — litigated with an eye on the business outcome as much as on the decree.
Trial to appellate
Property, partition, recovery and injunctions — trial craft forged in Delhi’s District Courts, with appellate and writ support when the matter must rise.
Forum choice
A deliberate choice among court, arbitration and mediation — with partners who believe settlement can be strength when the law and the facts allow it.
Discretion & resolve
More than 500 family matters handled — with a preference for mediation where dignity can still be preserved, and firm trial advocacy where it cannot.
For society
A chambers earns its place not only by the matters it wins, but by the standards it leaves behind — in classrooms, in published commentary, and in the quiet work of helping parties leave conflict with a lawful peace. Contribution to society, for us, begins with accurate counsel and continues in the education of younger lawyers and the clarification of difficult questions of law.
Partners have judged university moot court competitions — including the quarter-final of the 3rd Amity International Moot Court Competition (2013), the 4th NHRC–LC-1 National Moot Court Competition (2016), and the XIV LC-1 All Delhi Moot Court Competition (2018) — mentoring aspiring advocates in oral craft, memorial discipline and professional ethics. Guest lectures on intellectual property, arbitration and the Negotiable Instruments Act have been delivered to law students and Company Secretaries.
Eight critical articles on arbitration, consumer protection, privacy, medical negligence, capital punishment and related themes have been published in magazines and research journals of national repute. The chambers assisted an Associate Professor of Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi, in writing Copyright and Related Rights – National & International Perspectives (Macmillan India Ltd.). Writing is treated as a public responsibility: to test the reasoning of judgments and to leave a clearer trail for those who come after.
Partners treat early, fair settlement as a contribution to court congestion and to families and businesses exhausted by delay — especially in long-pending civil, commercial, and matrimonial disputes. A mediation that restores peace without erasing rights is, in the chambers’ view, as much a service to the administration of justice as a hard-fought decree.
Panel and consultancy work for ministries, PSUs and statutory bodies — including defence housing arbitrations for DG MAP, highways (NHIDCL), standards (BIS), trade (MMTC), education (NCERT) and internet governance (NIXI) — is undertaken as a duty of accurate, independent counsel to the Republic’s institutions. The opposite parties in those matters have included major EPC contractors; the firm’s duty has been to the public interest entrusted to it.
People
The lawyers at Parens Patrice appear before the Supreme Court of India, the High Court of Delhi, District Courts in Delhi and the NCR, specialised tribunals, and arbitral forums. The team combines appellate and writ advocacy with strong trial craft, arbitration expertise, and advisory capability across commercial, civil, matrimonial, insolvency, intellectual property, and banking matters. Partners of the firm have served as Central Government counsel, sit on panels of government departments, defence establishments, PSUs and statutory bodies, teach and adjudicate at law schools, and publish critical commentary on important judgments.
Managing Partner · Advocate, Supreme Court of India
Advocate before the Supreme Court of India with two decades across the Supreme Court, Delhi High Court, NCDRC and arbitral tribunals. Specialises in construction and infrastructure arbitration and civil and writ matters; ex–Senior Panel Counsel for the Union of India; empanelled with NHIDCL, BIS, DG MAP, MMTC, NCERT and NIXI; empanelled arbitrator with ICA, NIXI, IDRC and SCOPE.
Partner · Arbitration · Commercial Litigation · Civil & Property · Mediation
Partner since November 2008 with over 18 years in civil, commercial, property, arbitration and corporate litigation. Strong mediation practice and cross-examination expertise; member of SCBA, DHCBA and Delhi Bar Association; Bar Council enrolment D/2101/2008; panel experience with NIXI and earlier with DG MAP and TCIL.
Founding Partner · Commercial Recovery · NI Act · Matrimonial & Family Law
Founding Partner with more than 19 years across Delhi and NCR trial courts. Specialist in recovery suits and NI Act cheque-bounce matters, and a leading matrimonial practitioner with more than 500 family matters handled — preferring mediation where dignity can still be preserved.
Advocate · Banking & Finance · SARFAESI · DRT / DRAT
Advocate since 2009 with more than 17 years in banking and finance litigation, SARFAESI enforcement, and DRT/DRAT proceedings. Advises banks, financial institutions, corporates and individuals on recovery, title verification, documentation and contested enforcement.
How a matter proceeds
A simple sequence — conference, assessment, representation — keeps the client oriented from the first conversation to the final hearing.
01
Facts, forum, and procedural posture are reviewed before any strategy is advanced. We listen for what the papers do not yet say — missing notices, parallel proceedings, limitation risks, and the commercial or personal objective that must survive the dispute.
02
Merits, binding precedent, and the right route — court, arbitration, or mediation — are framed and explained. You receive a written sense of strengths, weaknesses, timelines and interim options, so decisions are made with eyes open.
03
Pleadings, written submissions, and appearances before the appropriate court or tribunal follow. Briefing of senior counsel, coordination across forums, and continuous updates are part of the same continuous file — not a series of disconnected appearances.
Selected experience
Institutional trust is earned matter by matter. The chambers records below are drawn from documented panel roles and instructed work — framed carefully so that opposite parties in arbitration are never presented as the firm’s clients.
In 2008–09, the Managing Partner independently handled an international commercial arbitration before the International Court of Arbitration (ICA), France, concerning a dispute of over ₹120 crores — an early signal of the firm’s comfort with complex, cross-border commercial records.
As Arbitration Consultant to DG MAP (Married Accommodation Project), Ministry of Defence, counsel has defended the department in over two dozen construction-engineering arbitrations before tribunals comprising former Chief Justices of India and former judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts.
Partners have served as Senior Panel Counsel for the Union of India before the Delhi High Court and as Panel Counsel before the Supreme Court of India, and earlier as panel counsel for the South Delhi Municipal Corporation before the High Court and the National Green Tribunal.
Present and recent empanelments include NHIDCL, Bureau of Indian Standards, MMTC Limited, NCERT and NIXI — spanning highways, standards regulation, international trade, education and internet governance — together with arbitrator empanelments at ICA (FICA), IDRC and SCOPE.
Insights
Critical articles on arbitration, consumer law, privacy and related themes — written to test judgments and leave a clearer trail for those who come after.
July 2010 · Praveen Kumar Jain
This article clarifies the position of laws relating to registration and stamp duty on documents transferring immovable properties after the Registration and Other Related Laws (Amendment) Act, 2001. It also distinguishes the equity of specific performance from the doctrine of part performance.
August 2009 · Praveen Kumar Jain
A commentary on the measure of compensation in medical negligence, written as a caution to healthcare enterprises on liability, patient safety, and the scale of awards.
February 2008 · Praveen Kumar Jain
An arbitral tribunal is designed to resolve contractual clashes with efficacy equal to a court of law. For lack of certain basic tools and techniques this alternative justice delivery vehicle can break down on its path. The article discusses such lacunae.