Sumant Behari Mathur is the Chief General Manager – Legal at Steel Authority of India Limited. He joined SAIL in 1991 as a management trainee at the steel plant in Rourkela, Odisha, and was posted to Bokaro Steel Plant (now in Jharkhand). Later, he was transferred to the law department at SAIL’s corporate and registered office in New Delhi. Presently, he is the in-house counsel leading a team of over 50 law officers spread at 13 locations in the country.

He has drafted joint venture agreements, shareholder’s agreements, shared facilities agreements, domestic and international commercial contracts and standard bidding documents for project contracts. With expertise in arbitration, Sumant has handled over 100 domestic arbitrations in ICA, SFCA and DIAC in subjects including maritime, international trade, coal import, patent, trademarks, projects and supply of materials.

He completed his education from Lucknow University with bachelor’s degrees in Commerce and Law, and a Masters’ in Applied Economics. He has also handled over 40 international arbitrations and has first-hand experience of arbitrations with a neutral country as venue and seat of arbitration. He is credited for being the interface between SAIL and the Ministry of Steel for legal issues confronting the steel industry.

Sumant is a recipient of 7 awards from SAIL; featured in Business World – BW Legal World’s General Counsel 100 List (2020); recipient of the Award of Honor and Recognition for outstanding service to the corporate sector and promoting business and commerce for the economic growth of the country from the Society of Indian Law Firms (2021).