Churchill Brothers were the current holders, having beaten Prayag United in the 2011 Final.

The tournament was held from 16 August to 1 September with all matches at the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi.

[1] Air India won the 2012 Durand Cup in the final after beating Dodsal 3–2 on penalties after the match ended 0–0 after 120 minutes.

However, on 22 August 2012 it was announced that HAL SC would withdraw from the tournament (along with Churchill Brothers S.C. who withdrew before the initial list of teams was released) and thus freeing an extra space.

So in order to fill it up the Durand Football Committee decided to qualify the four teams remaining in the preliminary rounds.