International Arbitration
Islamic Finance
Litigation and Dispute Resolution
Maritime & Aviation
Project Finance
Real Estate & Construction
Restructuring & Insolvency
Mustafa Motiwala heads the Mumbai office and the Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice of the firm.
The litigation and disputes team at Clasis Law is well equipped to assist clients on all contentious aspects with the aim to effectively and optimally strategize to resolve the dispute matters in a timely manner.
He specialises in litigation, insolvency & bankruptcy, shipping, real estate, intellectual property rights, media and entertainment, family disputes, Islamic law, project financing and corporate work. He also has expertise in arbitration which includes matters, across various courts and fora in India as well as domestic and international institutional arbitration.
He has been involved in drafting contentious court and tribunals’ proceedings. He has strategized complex contentious proceedings and is actively involved in domestic and international arbitration. He is also actively involved in property related documentation involving complex transactions and disputes. He has advised various multi-national companies on intellectual property related contentious and non-contentious issues.
He has also been actively advising and representing overseas clients on Insolvency and Bankruptcy laws, arbitration disputes, enforcement and execution of the foreign judgments and foreign awards.
His professional memberships:
- Inter Pacific Bar Association (IPBA)
- Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa
- Bombay Incorporated Law Society
He is also admitted as a Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators.
Landmark judgement
Under the leadership of Mustafa Motiwala, Clasis Law represented and advised Macquarie Bank before the Hon’ble Supreme Court for securing the right to initiate insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“Code”). The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (“NCLAT”), vide its orders, had rejected Macquarie Bank’s Application under Section 9 of the Code to initiate insolvency proceedings against Uttam Galva Metallics Limited and Shilpi Cables Technologies Limited on two counts. Clasis Law filed Civil Appeals, against the above-mentioned orders passed by the NCLAT, where the Supreme Court, considered all the submissions and arguments made on behalf of all the parties and held that the requirement of filing the certificate under Section 9 (3) (c) of the Code is not a pre-requisite to trigger the insolvency proceedings under the Code and that the said Certificate is a procedural requirement and is directory in nature. The Supreme Court also held that the demand notices issued by the lawyers on behalf of operational creditors under Section 8 of the Code is valid and in order. Clasis Law was able to promptly secure this judgment in a period of 2 months from the date of issuance of notice. This judgment has most definitely paved the way for potential foreign operational creditors to avail the provisions of the Code and also for other operational creditors at large and is a welcome change.
Mustafa Motiwala was quoted in Business Standard in relation to the aforementioned landmark judgment which he and his team secured. The link to this article can be accessed here- https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/banks-certificates-not-must-for-triggering-insolvency-117121900039_1.html
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