Shantha Devi Raman – Senior Partner

Shantha is a Senior Partner with Law Offices of India having rich experience of around 3 decades in litigation, arbitration and corporate practices. She is known for her civil law practice, consumer, contractual issues, insurance, service matters, real estate, property-related litigation, and Arbitration with various reported judgements to her credit. 

She has been an integral part of various conferences and conclaves focusing on various socio-economic and legal genres. She has been a panel speaker at seminars and discussions on the prevailing laws of the land and has been felicitated by “Bhartiya Bhasha Abhiyaan” in “Women Advocate’s Conference.” She is head Legal Affairs of an NGO “Dignity Restoration & Grievance Settlement Association” which has been actively working all over the country to provide fast and free redressal to consumers and also educating consumers of their rights. 

She is advising a number of MNC’s, domestic corporate entities and high net worth individuals in joint venture projects and rendered consultancy services on legal and statutory documentation & procedures. Her acumen involves drafting and vetting of highly complex legal agreements such as shareholding agreements, JV agreements, technology transfer agreements, confidentiality agreements, and various employment-related agreements. She has been assisting the clients in devising their strategies pertaining to matters related to regulatory and other corporate commercial issues. 

Shantha has been Designated Counsel for various insurance providers in Supreme Court, Delhi High Court, and National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission. She has been invited to speak at various forums on motor & marine insurance laws, consumer laws, land laws, energy laws, service laws and other topics of public importance. She has extensive experience in advising insurance companies both in life and nonlife segment. She has been playing an instrumental role in providing bespoke solutions to the clients in interpretation of policy terms and conditions in the context of statute & judicial pronouncements. 

She has been instrumental in providing relief to educational institutions in their endeavor to provide quality education to their students through the intervention of Hon’ble Delhi High Court by filling up the huge vacancies for the post of teachers for various disciplines by the Government of NCT of Delhi without any delay. Her accomplishments and contributions for the welfare of the society and in improving the quality and standard of services provided in schools are humongous as she has played a vital role in getting an adequate number of non-teaching staff to schools all across Delhi for better cleanliness and security in the schools. 

Her contributions in the field of Consumer Protection Laws have been exceptional and she has actively worked towards speedy redressal of consumer grievance. She is a firm believer in the saying “justice delayed is justice denied” and has put in a lot of effort to make this saying a reality. She has contested a landmark case in which Hon’ble Supreme Court has held that “notwithstanding anything contained in Section 13 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, the written statement can be filed even beyond the stipulated 45 days in “appropriate case, on suitable terms”. This has solved a very pertinent question of law which was acting as a road block to various proceedings and delaying proceedings before the various Consumer Forums and Commissions all over India. 

She has represented and been part of various matters be it pertaining to service, arbitration or civil litigation in which the Hon’ble Supreme Court has reaffirmed or settled the legal proposition such as under Order VIII Rule 6 (C) of CPC “Consideration of counterclaim when the same is filed within limitation from when the cause of action arose, even when it had not been filed along with Written Statement, is to be treated as legal”. 

She has immense experience in the field of Alternate Dispute Redressal and has been a front runner when it comes to settlement of cases through alternate dispute mechanism be it arbitration, mediation or settlement through Lok Adalat. She has assisted and successfully represented various companies and organizations in their Arbitration Disputes before eminent former Hon’ble Supreme Court and High Court Judges and is also acting as an arbitrator in matters. She has also played a vital role in settlement of various technical and legal points that have arisen under the Arbitration Act, such as one that arose under the Arbitration Act of 1940, wherein it was decided by the Hon’ble High Court that “notice of appearance is different from notice of arbitral award”. Further it was held that “the limitation for filing objections under Section 30 of Arbitration Act, 1940 will start from date of service of notice for filing objection and not from the date of service of notice for appearance.”