Practice Area · International & Cross-Border
International & Cross-Border Lawyers in Gujarat: Indian Counsel for Foreign Companies and Overseas Law Firms
Indian counsel in Gujarat for foreign law firms, multinational groups, international banks, investors and overseas families: cross-border transactions, India entry, jurisdiction and governing law, international arbitration, and the enforcement of foreign awards and judgments in India.
Find your routeForeign law firmsCross-border disputesSetting up in IndiaOverseas familiesFAQs
Key facts
27 countries
Clients and instructing law firms on four continents
Part II
Of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996: the route for enforcing foreign awards in India
Section 44A
Of the Code of Civil Procedure: decrees of courts in reciprocating territories, such as the United Kingdom
Supreme Court to district courts
Forums across Gujarat and India where the firm acts
Mahendra Bhavsar & Co. is a Gujarat-focused law firm, headquartered in Ahmedabad since 1982. Its international and cross-border lawyers advise multinational groups, international banks, investors and foreign law firms under Indian law on jurisdiction, governing law and enforcement, and act on transactions and disputes with an India or Gujarat connection. The firm’s clients and instructing law firms come from 27 countries on four continents.
This page is the starting point for international readers: a foreign law firm looking for Indian counsel, a party to a cross-border dispute, a foreign company setting up a plant, office or capability centre in Gujarat, an Asian, European or American group investing in the State, or a family abroad with property in Gujarat. Each route below leads to the part of the site that answers that situation in full.
Find the Right Route
Choose the situation closest to yours.
Foreign Law Firms
Indian counsel in Gujarat for your client: opinions, searches and diligence, litigation and arbitration, property and loan documents, company formation and enforcement, run alongside your team. Read more
Cross-Border Disputes
Enforcing or resisting foreign awards and judgments, interim relief in India for arbitrations seated abroad, and parallel proceedings. International disputes
Setting Up in India and Gujarat
Joint ventures with Indian partners, subsidiaries and offices, foreign investment and reporting, in the order a new business needs them. Setting up in India
Plants, Projects and Supply
Land and GIDC plots, plant and machinery, EPC and supply contracts, and expatriate teams for a new facility. Commercial contracts
Lenders and Investors
Facility and security documents, Indian-law opinions for foreign banks, and distressed and special-situations investment. Banking and finance
NRI, OCI and Overseas Families
Property, inheritance, succession planning and family disputes over land and assets in Gujarat. Succession and NRI work
Where an International Client Is Most Exposed in India
Most cross-border problems in India are fixed most cheaply at the start: in the contract, the structure or the first filing. These are the points the firm checks first.
The Dispute Clause
A foreign jurisdiction or arbitration clause that an Indian court reads differently, or a seat that makes interim relief in India harder to obtain.
Enforcement in India
An award or judgment that has to pass the Indian enforcement route before it touches assets in Gujarat, with public-policy and procedure objections from the other side.
The Indian Counterparty’s Assets
Land, plant and receivables held by an Indian partner or debtor, whose title, charges and family arrangements decide what is recoverable.
The Investment Route
Sector conditions, land-border approval, pricing rules and reporting deadlines that delay closing or penalise a late filing.
People on the Ground
Expatriate engineers and managers whose visa category, FRRO registration and employment terms must fit the work they do in India.
Documents Signed Abroad
Powers of attorney, deeds and agreements executed outside India that need the right attestation, stamping and registration before they work in Gujarat.
Indian Counsel in Gujarat for Foreign Law Firms
Law firms in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Austria and Italy have instructed Mahendra Bhavsar & Co. The firm works inside the instructing team: it takes instructions from the foreign firm, reports in English in the form the client’s file needs, and keeps to the timetable the overseas proceedings or transaction set. The work includes:
- Indian-law opinions for use in transactions, international arbitration and foreign court proceedings, on jurisdiction, governing law, capacity and enforceability;
- searches and due diligence on Gujarat companies, land, GIDC plots, charges and litigation;
- litigation and arbitration in India in support of the overseas matter, including interim relief and the recognition of foreign awards and judgments;
- property, security and loan documents governed by Indian law, and the stamping and registration they need;
- company formation, joint-venture documents and closing deliverables for the Indian side of a transaction.
Work for instructing lawyers includes company and litigation searches on an Indian company for a Singapore law firm; an Indian-law opinion on finance, security and enforcement questions for an Austrian bank’s transaction, through its international counsel; working with a Texas law firm on the Indian side of US bankruptcy proceedings; and court-annexed mediation in Ahmedabad for a US company, working with its US counsel.
Foreign law stays with the instructing firm or counsel in the relevant country; the firm answers the Indian-law questions and runs the Gujarat work.
Cross-Border Disputes, International Arbitration and Enforcement
Mahendra Bhavsar & Co. acts in international commercial arbitration, institutional and ad hoc, and in the Indian court proceedings around it, through its litigation and arbitration lawyers. The work includes:
- enforcing foreign arbitral awards in India under Part II of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, and resisting their enforcement;
- executing decrees of courts in reciprocating territories, such as the United Kingdom, under section 44A of the Code of Civil Procedure, and suing on other foreign judgments in India;
- interim relief from Indian courts in aid of arbitrations seated in India or abroad, to protect assets and evidence in Gujarat;
- challenges to jurisdiction, applications to restrain or stay parallel proceedings, and coordination of Indian orders with proceedings abroad;
- disputes over import and export payments, supply and distribution, and joint ventures with Indian partners;
- claims in Indian insolvency processes for foreign creditors and suppliers, with the firm’s insolvency lawyers.
Setting Up in India and in Gujarat
For a foreign company building a plant, a project office or a global capability centre in Gujarat, the steps usually come in a set order: the structure and the Indian partner, the joint-venture documents, the entity and the foreign-investment route, the land and approvals, plant and machinery, the first expatriate team, the commercial contracts, and the tax position of the whole arrangement. The firm runs those steps as one plan, through its corporate lawyers, real estate lawyers and commercial lawyers. The work includes:
- joint ventures with Indian partners, including checks on the partner’s land, approvals and borrowings;
- the choice between a subsidiary, an LLP, and a branch, liaison or project office, and putting the entity in place;
- foreign-investment routes, approvals and reporting;
- industrial land and GIDC plots, leases and approvals for the facility, across the sectors set out on the industries page;
- supply, EPC, technology and distribution contracts;
- visas, FRRO registration and employment terms for the expatriate team, as part of the project;
- the tax side of the investment and of the joint-venture documents, including permanent establishment and the application of tax treaties.
NRI, OCI and Overseas Families
Families living in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Africa and the Gulf often hold land, houses and family-business interests in Gujarat. Mahendra Bhavsar & Co. acts for them on title and revenue records, succession and inheritance, succession planning across countries, powers of attorney and documents signed abroad, sales and purchases, and family property disputes, without the family needing to be in India for each step. More on the firm’s succession, property and NRI work.
International Work the Firm Handles
Mahendra Bhavsar & Co. acts across the whole life of international matters with an India or Gujarat connection, from the first structure and the first contract to proceedings in Gujarat and enforcement. Its international work includes:
- instructions from law firms in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Austria and Italy, on opinions, diligence, litigation, arbitration and transactions;
- advice to international financial institutions and banks on jurisdiction, governing law and proceedings brought against them in Gujarat;
- proceedings over the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Gujarat, and coordination with counsel abroad on arbitration and bankruptcy matters;
- India-entry strategy, corporate structure and Indian-law opinions for multinational and infrastructure groups from Europe and Asia;
- Gujarat projects for multinational groups;
- property, succession and revenue matters over ancestral land in Gujarat for families in the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere.
The same approach serves the larger mandates now arising in Gujarat: foreign investment in semiconductors, electronics, renewables, chemicals and capability centres; cross-border supply and EPC contracts for new plants; and the disputes, awards and judgments that follow them.
Named a winner at the India Business Law Journal Regional Law Firm Awards 2026 in Arbitration & ADR (Ahmedabad) and Real Estate (Ahmedabad).
Where the Firm Appears
Mahendra Bhavsar & Co.’s lawyers appear before the courts, tribunals and authorities that decide Gujarat matters, including the Supreme Court of India, the High Court of Gujarat, NCLT Ahmedabad, the Commercial Courts, the City Civil Court, Ahmedabad, district courts across Gujarat, arbitral tribunals and revenue authorities. More on the firm’s court and tribunal work.
Working with Counsel Abroad and Other Advisers
Most international matters have advisers in more than one country. Mahendra Bhavsar & Co. answers the Indian-law questions and does the Gujarat work; foreign law stays with counsel in the relevant country, with whom the firm coordinates. Reports go to clients and instructing firms in English, and the firm works in English, Gujarati and Hindi, across time zones.
Mahendra Bhavsar & Co. works with a network of affiliated firms of chartered accountants and company secretaries, and with established advocates across Gujarat. Tax-compliance and company-law filing steps are handled with the affiliated firms as one team and one timetable; tax advice on the transaction is the firm’s own.
How the Firm Works
The firm’s senior lawyers lead its work. A matter begins with an understanding of the client’s objective and the issues in play, and the firm looks at it as a whole, so each step is taken with the next one in mind.
Related Insights from the Firm
Articles by the firm on cross-border points.
What You Will Usually Need to Provide
- who the parties are and the countries they are based in;
- what the matter is, and what you need from Indian counsel: an opinion, a transaction, proceedings or enforcement;
- the timetable, including any hearing, deadline or closing date abroad;
- the key documents you have: the contract and its dispute clause, any award, judgment or order, and any notice received.
The firm first checks for conflicts of interest. Please do not send confidential papers until the firm confirms it can act.
Questions on International and Cross-Border Work
Position as at 5 November 2026.
Does the firm act as Indian counsel for foreign law firms?
Yes. Law firms in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Austria and Italy have instructed the firm on Indian-law opinions, searches and diligence, litigation and arbitration, property and loan documents and company formation. The firm works inside the instructing team and reports in English.
Can a foreign arbitral award be enforced in Gujarat?
Yes, by the route Indian law sets. Awards made in countries that India has notified under the New York Convention are enforced under Part II of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The other side can object only on the limited grounds the Act allows.
Can a foreign court judgment be enforced in India?
A decree of a superior court in a reciprocating territory, such as the United Kingdom, can be executed in India under section 44A of the Code of Civil Procedure. A judgment from a non-reciprocating country, such as the United States, is usually enforced by filing a suit on it in India.
Will an Indian court respect a foreign jurisdiction or arbitration clause?
Generally, yes, where the clause is valid and covers the dispute, but the answer turns on its wording, the seat and the parties. Indian courts can also grant interim relief in aid of an arbitration seated abroad, unless the parties have excluded it.
How does a foreign company start a business in Gujarat?
Usually through an Indian subsidiary, a joint venture with an Indian partner, or a liaison, branch or project office, depending on the sector and the activity. The foreign-investment route, the land and approvals, and the first contracts are planned together.
Can NRIs and OCIs own property in Gujarat?
NRIs and OCIs can generally buy residential and commercial property in India. Agricultural land, plantation property and farmhouses are restricted, although they can be inherited. The documents, the payment route and the revenue records each need attention.
Does the firm work with counsel in other countries?
Yes. The firm runs the Indian side of a matter in step with counsel abroad, who handle the foreign law. It has worked with counsel in the United States and China on bankruptcy and arbitration matters.
In which languages does the firm work?
In English, Gujarati and Hindi. Reports, opinions and correspondence for international clients and instructing firms are in English; Gujarati revenue records and documents are read in the original.
Discuss a legal matter with the firm
Tell the firm who the parties are, where they are based, and what you need from Indian counsel.