Observing there is lack of professionalism among judges and lawyers who deal with arbitration laws across the country, Justice A.P. Shah, Chairman, Law Commission of India, said here on Saturday that the Commission would come out with suggestions to reform the existing laws.
Inaugurating a conference on ‘Strengthening Arbitration in India’ organised by Nani Palkhivala Arbitration Centre, Mr. Justice Shah said despite a move towards modern approach to the law of arbitration around the world, the system in India continued to be plagued by several ills.
“One of the greatest problems in Indian arbitration system is that most of the arbitrations are ad-hoc as the institutional arbitration has unfortunately not flourished. Even the conduct of the proceedings by some arbitrators and also by the members of the Bar leaves a lot of to be desired in our country”, he observed
Mr. Justice A.P. Shah also said the Commission was about to finalise a report on the proposed reforms and would propose to set time limit for the decision of arbitration proceedings. He also said it would be proposed that the courts in India could exercise power to grant interim measures even when the seat of arbitration was outside the country. A ‘new regime for costs’ would be mooted to arbitrations so as to discourage frivolous proceedings, he added.
Deprecating the trend of appointment of its own officers as arbitrators by some institutions, he said, “We are saying there should not be employees or past employees appointed as arbitrators either by private company or government body.”
He also said the Commission would suggest to the government to constitute an Arbitration Commission headed by Union Law Minister for laying down norms and accrediting institutional arbitrations.
Besides Madras High Court Judges, senior advocates, including Arvind P. Datar and N.L.Rajah and former chief financial officer of Tata Consultancy Services S. Mahalingam, participated.
