The first footsteps towards taking resort to alternate methods of dispute resolution in the ancient India can be traced back as early as The Bengal Regulation Act,1772 which provided that in all cases of disputed accounts, parties are to submit the same to arbitrators whose decision are deemed a decree and shall be final.

The Regulation Act,1781 further envisaged that judges should recommend the parties to submit disputes to mutually agreed person and no award of arbitrator could be set aside unless there were two witnesses that arbitrator had committed gross error or was partial to a party.

 A recommendation for the first time was made to the Second Law Commission by Sir Charleswood to provide for a uniform law regarding arbitration. The Code of Civil Procedure was then enacted accordingly in 1859. Sections 312, 313-325 and 326-327 laid down the permission and procedure for arbitration without the court’s intervention.