Setting up the Arbitration Promotion Council of India that would recognise professional institutes providing accreditation of arbitrators, creation of a specialist arbitration bench to deal with commercial disputes and revamping the International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ICADR) are among the recommendations made by a high level committee to make India a hub of domestic and international arbitration.
The law ministry had set up a ten-member committee under the chairmanship of Justice B.N. Srikrishna to suggest ways to revamp the arbitration mechanism in India, and the panel submitted its report on Thursday, listing a slew of recommendations to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The committee has recommended setting up of an autonomous body, which can be called the Arbitration Promotion Council of India, having representatives from all stakeholders, for grading arbitral institutions in India. The council may recognise professional institutes providing for accreditation of arbitrators.
It has been recommended that the APCI may hold training workshops and interact with law firms and law schools to train advocates so as to create a specialist arbitration bar, comprising advocates dedicated to the field. Creation of a specialist arbitration bench to deal with commercial disputes in the domain of courts has also been suggested.
The panel has suggested changes in various provisions of the 2015 amendments in the Arbitration and Conciliation Act with a view to make arbitration speedier and more efficacious and incorporate international best practices.
Taking a grim view of the working of the ICADR, which was set up in 1995 and has in the over last two decades only carried out around 20 arbitrations, the committee has said it could be declared an institute of national importance, taken over by a statute and revamped to become a globally competitive institution.
As regards matters involving the Union of India, including bilateral investment treaties, the committee has recommended creation of the post of an international law advisor who shall advise the government and coordinate dispute resolution strategy for the government.
Welcoming the recommendations, Prasad said the initiative was part of Modi government's efforts to make India a centre of international arbitration. “We are aware of the potential to make India into a hub of international arbitration, something like Singapore. At present, even Indian companies prefer Singapore for arbitration,” he said.
Prasad said the government will take adequate follow up steps based on the committee's recommendations. “The government will take a structured view on this. We will have to go to Parliament with changes in the law,” he said.
