Judges must exercise self restraint with arbitral awards: CJI TS Thakur

The London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) conducted a seminar on the ‘Efficiency & Effectiveness of Arbitration’ in New Delhi. The seminar, which was held yesterday, was a joint initiative of the LCIA, AZB & Partners and Norton Rose Fulbright. Chief Justice of India TS Thakur delivered the keynote address..The event also saw the attendance of J William F Rowley QC, the Chairman of LCIA; AZB & Partners’s Percy Billimoria, Sherina Petit from Norton Rose Fulbright, Sundar Rajagopalan who is the General Counsel of the Bharti Airtel Group, and the Director-General of the LCIA, Dr Jacomijn van Haersolte-van Hof..Rowley, who gave the welcome address, began by addressing the framework within which the LCIA functions and why ad-hoc arbitrations had gained significance in recent times. During the panel discussion, Billimoria and Hof also spoke about the most effective provisions of the LCIA Rules, with Billimoria discussing the new amendments to the Indian Law of Arbitration and why fixation of an unrealistic timeline will only prove to be ‘counter-productive’ to the idea of arbitration..Rajagopalan also endorsed the majority view when he said that the timeline of 18 months to complete an arbitration did not make any sense and that it was more important to ‘manage the journey’ of how arbitration proceedings took place in the country..CJI Thakur entered the hall to a rapturous applause and immediately apologized to the sizeable turnout of lawyers, for his delayed presence and how he was attending a book launch at Rashtrapati Bhawan..“Ever since I have become the Chief Justice, I must have released a dozen books. I feel like a professional book releaser!’, joked the CJI before proceeding to voice his thoughts on ADR methods and their effectiveness..“We have often seen that methods of Alternative Dispute Resolution present a promising alternative. We have tried to setup ADR Centres attached to each Court as well. However, any mechanical reference to an arbitration centre will not lead anyone anywhere as judges should also be adequately trained in ADR methods.”.Elaborating on the scope of arbitration he further said,.“Arbitration has great potential and future in this country for not just big multi-national corporations but also for settling relatively smaller disputes. However if India needs to be a strong and self-sufficient centre for arbitration, it needs to cultivate a sense of professionalism.”.Drawing comparisons with the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) with the Indian setup, CJI Thakur attributed the effectiveness of the SIAC Arbitration to the country’s courts according due respect to arbitral awards..“The courts in that country do not unnecessarily interfere with the arbitral awards. They respect the arbitrator’s decision. If the judges here do not exercise self-restraint while entertaining a challenge to any arbitral award, the whole idea is rendered pointless.”.However, he added that usually interference of Courts here was necessitated if the judges were “doubtful” about the merit of the arbitral award. Therefore, it was crucial to have quality arbitrators hearing such disputes that would ensure the judicial correctness of a decision..While summing up his ideas, CJI Thakur added that he was entirely supportive of the concept of arbitration and was willing to do whatever was possible under his office to make it a more successful practice in India. In his inimitable wit, he added that there were selfish motives for him to endorse arbitration for he planned to work as an arbitrator once he hung up his boots at the Supreme Court!