Indian law does not require parties to be represented by an advocate in arbitration, and parties are free to represent themselves or use an authorised representative who is not a lawyer, subject to the tribunal's own procedural rules.
In practice, most commercial arbitrations of any real value involve legal representation, because the process still requires drafting pleadings that meet the tribunal's procedural requirements, presenting evidence in a legally coherent way, and — most importantly — because the narrow grounds to challenge an award under Section 34 make it critical to get procedural and substantive points right the first time, since there is little room to fix mistakes afterward.
For low-value, factually simple disputes between sophisticated commercial parties, self-representation is a genuine option. For anything with real money, technical complexity, or a multi-issue claim at stake, legal representation materially reduces the risk of an avoidable procedural misstep.