In Vijay Kumar Sharma v Raghunandan Sharma (2010) 2, SCC 486., a decision dated 5 January 2010, the Honourable Supreme Court of India reaffirmed, in light of the provisions contained in section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996, that a pending application in the courts regarding the existence of an arbitration agreement does not affect the continuance of the arbitration. The arbitrator can commence and continue with the arbitration proceedings irrespective of such an application. This decision could help to prevent the parties from obtaining injunctions from courts restraining the arbitral proceedings merely because of a dispute as to the existence of the arbitration agreement pending before the courts.

Note that in this case, the Court eventually went on to hold that there was no arbitration agreement between the parties. The Court referred to the requirement that arbitration agreements must be in writing between the parties and held that the mere fact that a desire has been stated in a will or a unilateral document that the heirs should settle their dispute through arbitration does not constitute an arbitration agreement.