Arbitration is here to stay, and we have to accept it, said Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra..He was speaking at the book release of “Principles of Law of Arbitration in India”, authored by co-founding Partner, Kachwaha & Partners, Dharmendra Rautray..The event which was held earlier this week, was attended by several prominent lawyers as well as former Judges..Justice Ravindra Bhat of Delhi High Court and Senior Advocate AK Ganguli were the Guests of Honour..CJI Misra began his address by recollecting his early days as an advocate when he had the opportunity to work on the newly emerging arbitration laws in the country..He also acknowledged the difficulty that judges face while dealing with an area that requires expertise. In such circumstances, judges take assistance from experts, which would delay the outcome of the litigation, CJI Misra observed..Remarking on the fraternity’s love for “litigation”, he said that an arbitrator must also be a “strong mediator” and should possess legal acumen and “uncommon common sense.”.He also asked the legal fraternity to “innovate” techniques in the field of arbitration to deal with the problem of voluminous evidence and documentation..In his address to the gathering, Senior Advocate Ganguli stated that that arbitration was the “most important and significant branch of law”..He pointed out the advantages of arbitration over litigation while observing that the courts do not have the time to grapple with complex issues, especially like the ones in international arbitration..“Experts come and give evidence which run into thousands of pages.. and Courts would be busy with the examination of such evidence for the entire year.. it is just not possible.”, he said..He, however, expressed his reservation over the introduction of “accreditation” for arbitrators in The Arbitration and Conciliation Amendment Bill, 2018..“A professional would not prefer to accredit himself with an institution which has no credibility of its own.. the concept has a flip side to it.”, he said..He further appealed to the gathering as well as the Government to work in tandem with the international standards of arbitration, while asking them to “introspect”..“We need to maintain the same discipline if we want to compete with the international bar.”, he said..Ganguli went further to draw the gathering’s attention to the need for establishing the culture of institutional arbitration in place of ad-hoc arbitration. Commenting on the Delhi International Arbitration Centre (DIAC) which functions under the aegis of the Delhi High Court, he said,.“DIAC has signaled some kind of change in the attitude (towards institutional arbitration).. yet the stunning institution has its own limitations..a commercially run institution can better market itself (as opposed to a one attached with a high court).”.Justice Bhat, in his address, spoke at length on techniques that would reduce the overwhelming quantity of evidence that is presented before an arbitral tribunal during proceedings. He advocated the adoption of “hot-tubbing”, “de-duplication” and “predictive-coding” to bring down the number of documents..Justice Bhat also advocated “online dispute resolution system”, wherein the parties could meet over “electronic interface” instead of being physically present.
Arbitration is here to stay, and we have to accept it, said Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra..He was speaking at the book release of “Principles of Law of Arbitration in India”, authored by co-founding Partner, Kachwaha & Partners, Dharmendra Rautray..The event which was held earlier this week, was attended by several prominent lawyers as well as former Judges..Justice Ravindra Bhat of Delhi High Court and Senior Advocate AK Ganguli were the Guests of Honour..CJI Misra began his address by recollecting his early days as an advocate when he had the opportunity to work on the newly emerging arbitration laws in the country..He also acknowledged the difficulty that judges face while dealing with an area that requires expertise. In such circumstances, judges take assistance from experts, which would delay the outcome of the litigation, CJI Misra observed..Remarking on the fraternity’s love for “litigation”, he said that an arbitrator must also be a “strong mediator” and should possess legal acumen and “uncommon common sense.”.He also asked the legal fraternity to “innovate” techniques in the field of arbitration to deal with the problem of voluminous evidence and documentation..In his address to the gathering, Senior Advocate Ganguli stated that that arbitration was the “most important and significant branch of law”..He pointed out the advantages of arbitration over litigation while observing that the courts do not have the time to grapple with complex issues, especially like the ones in international arbitration..“Experts come and give evidence which run into thousands of pages.. and Courts would be busy with the examination of such evidence for the entire year.. it is just not possible.”, he said..He, however, expressed his reservation over the introduction of “accreditation” for arbitrators in The Arbitration and Conciliation Amendment Bill, 2018..“A professional would not prefer to accredit himself with an institution which has no credibility of its own.. the concept has a flip side to it.”, he said..He further appealed to the gathering as well as the Government to work in tandem with the international standards of arbitration, while asking them to “introspect”..“We need to maintain the same discipline if we want to compete with the international bar.”, he said..Ganguli went further to draw the gathering’s attention to the need for establishing the culture of institutional arbitration in place of ad-hoc arbitration. Commenting on the Delhi International Arbitration Centre (DIAC) which functions under the aegis of the Delhi High Court, he said,.“DIAC has signaled some kind of change in the attitude (towards institutional arbitration).. yet the stunning institution has its own limitations..a commercially run institution can better market itself (as opposed to a one attached with a high court).”.Justice Bhat, in his address, spoke at length on techniques that would reduce the overwhelming quantity of evidence that is presented before an arbitral tribunal during proceedings. He advocated the adoption of “hot-tubbing”, “de-duplication” and “predictive-coding” to bring down the number of documents..Justice Bhat also advocated “online dispute resolution system”, wherein the parties could meet over “electronic interface” instead of being physically present.
