arbitration agreements entered into by contracting parties derive statutory validity from section 28 of the indian contract act and are protected from invalidation

Section 28 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 invalidates contracts in restraint of legal proceedings but explicitly saves arbitration agreements under its statutory exceptions. When competent parties voluntarily execute a written contract to submit present or future commercial disputes to arbitration, such an agreement is legally valid and recognized. Statutory provisions conferring general jurisdiction on local courts cannot, by their own force, automatically neutralize or invalidate private arbitration agreements that comply with the requirements of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 and Section 7 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. (Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited v. Santosh Cordeiro and Another | 2026 INSC 5)