Investor and manager disputes
Capital calls and defaults, fee and expense allocation, valuation, mandate breach, side-letter rights, co-investment allocation, key-person events, removal, conflicts, distributions and winding-up disputes.
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Disputes · Investigations · Distress
Fund Disputes, Investigations & Special Situations in India
This work addresses conflict within a fund, between investors and managers, around a portfolio company, or with a regulator; and investments where financial distress changes the original transaction assumptions. It combines document analysis, evidence preservation, regulatory response, arbitration or court strategy, insolvency, restructuring, enforcement and asset recovery.
If a notice, fraud concern or insolvency event is live
Preserve the governing documents, board and investment-committee records, notices, financial information, communications, transaction data and access logs. Avoid informal accusations or changes to records. Map any response deadline and establish who can direct the response before engaging counterparties, regulators or the resolution professional.
Common situations
Shareholder and portfolio disputes
Reserved matters, information and inspection, board conduct, founder or promoter obligations, related-party transactions, funding defaults, exit rights, tag/drag disputes, warranties and indemnities.
Regulatory investigations
SEBI, foreign-exchange or other regulator requests and notices; market-conduct concerns; KYC/AML and beneficial ownership; misleading disclosures; record reconstruction; internal investigation and remediation.
Portfolio fraud and asset tracing
Suspected diversion, false records, undisclosed related parties, unauthorized transactions, evidence preservation, forensic coordination, interim relief, claims, recovery strategy and cross-border asset questions.
Distressed and special-situations investments
New money, rescue or bridge capital, structured or debt-like instruments, security and intercreditor position, standstill, restructuring, acquisition of stressed assets and downside scenarios.
Insolvency and CIRP
Claim and creditor-position analysis, moratorium impact, preservation of contractual and security rights, resolution-plan strategy, distressed acquisition, avoidance concerns, liquidation and asset recovery.
How legal counsel assists
Stabilise the record
Preserve evidence, identify decision-makers and conflicts, secure corporate and transaction records, map deadlines, and stop avoidable waiver or inconsistent communications.
Read the documents with the live legal framework
Analyse fund, shareholder, financing, security and service-provider documents alongside company law, arbitration clauses, regulatory powers, FEMA, securities regulation and the insolvency framework.
Select the forum and immediate remedy
Consider notice and negotiation, internal governance, mediation, arbitration, court or tribunal relief, regulator response, police or investigative process where facts support it, and insolvency or enforcement action.
Protect value while the merits proceed
Interim relief, information access, asset preservation, standstill, management or board measures, funding controls, security and creditor strategy, claims filing and sale or restructuring options may need parallel attention.
Resolve, restructure or recover
The outcome may be a negotiated amendment, removal or buyout, settlement, award or judgment, resolution plan, distressed sale, enforcement or asset recovery. The route should account for collectability and commercial continuity, not only legal merits.
Special situations are not ordinary PE with a lower valuation
Time, liquidity, creditor priority, security, information quality, management stability and insolvency risk can dominate the economics. Documents may need enhanced conditions, cash controls, monitoring, information, covenants, security, intercreditor arrangements, milestones, default remedies and a credible downside path. If CIRP begins, the moratorium and statutory process may alter how contractual rights can be exercised.
Dispute and special-situations questions
How are fund-manager and investor disputes handled?
Begin with the fund documents, side letters, governance and dispute clause and the regulator’s framework. The issue may require information and accounting, internal decision-making, notice and cure, negotiation or mediation, arbitration, court relief or a regulatory response. Urgent questions often concern access to records, ongoing capital calls, asset preservation and who can act for the fund.
What should a fund do when it suspects portfolio-company fraud?
Preserve records and access logs, identify the persons who can direct the response, review board/information and investigation rights, control privilege where available, coordinate forensic work, assess mandatory reporting and avoid alerting possible wrongdoers prematurely. Interim relief and asset-tracing strategy may need to begin before the full merits are known.
What rights does a PE investor have if a portfolio company enters CIRP?
There is no universal PE-investor answer. Rights depend on whether the investor also has a creditor or security position, the capital and contract structure, admitted claims, the moratorium, the company’s governance and the live resolution process. Pre-CIRP shareholder rights must be tested against the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code rather than assumed to continue unchanged.
How are distressed or special-situations investments structured?
Depending on the facts, structures may involve new equity, debt or permitted hybrid instruments, security, priority arrangements, milestone funding, restructuring, acquisition of claims or assets, or participation in a resolution process. Route, approvals, avoidance risk, valuation, creditor priority, enforceability and exit should be analysed together.
When is arbitration relevant to a fund dispute?
It is relevant when the governing agreement contains a valid arbitration mechanism and the dispute is arbitrable. Multiple agreements, parties, urgent interim relief, regulatory or insolvency issues and enforcement location can complicate the route. The arbitration clause and surrounding transaction should be mapped before commencing proceedings.
Related workstreams
Private Equity covers the investment and governance documents that often drive later disputes. Fund Compliance covers investigation readiness and operational records. The external arbitration and dispute-resolution platform covers procedure, interim relief and enforcement.
Primary materials checked
- IBBI: Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and amendments
- IBBI notifications, including commencement material
- SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012, last amended 14 July 2026
Law stated as at 21 August 2026
Enquiries
Describe the proposed transaction, fund, regulatory question or dispute in general terms. Please do not send confidential or privileged documents in the first message.
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