ZANMAI LABS PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. BITCIPHER LABS LLP

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The captioned Petitions filed under Sec. 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 ("the Act") challenging the decision of the Learned Arbitral Tribunal contained in two orders passed under Sec. 17 of the Act dated December 16, 2024 and March 12, 2025 (collectively, "Impugned Order"). The Learned Arbitral Tribunal has directed that certain specified amounts be secured by way of provision of a bank guarantee or deposit in escrow as a measure of preservation of the subject matter of the arbitration agreement.

(2.) It would be necessary to have a brief overview of the facts involved. The Petitioner, Zanmai Labs Private Limited ("Zanmai") provides services connected with a trading platform called WazirX ("WazirX Platform"). Zanmai is a subsidiary of a company incorporated in Singapore, called Zettai Pte Ltd., Singapore ("Zettai"). Zanmai is founded by one Mr. Nishchal Shetty who is also a deponent of affidavits filed in Courts in Singapore on behalf of Zettai in a scheme of arrangement sought to be propounded by Zettai, which is stated to have implications for the matter at hand.

(3.) The two Respondents are Bitcipher Labs LLP ("Bitcipher") in Commercial Arbitration Petition (L) No.11646 of 2025 and Nextgendev Solutions Pvt. Ltd. ("Nextgendev") in Commercial Arbitration Petition (L) No.11975 of 2025. Bitcipher is a virtual digital asset service provider and enables access to trading on the WazirX platform for its respective clients through the contractual framework between Bitcipher and Zanmai. Bitcipher operates under the trade name, called CoinSwitch and is registered as a broker on the WazirX platform.