Arbitral process discussed at international conference

Discussion on arbitral process by judges, government officials, luminaries, legal experts and corporates was the highlight of the second day of the ongoing global conference on legal issues here on Saturday.

The three-day conference on the National Initiative to Strengthen Arbitration and Enforcement in India was inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday.

The conference, organised by NITI Aayog, aims at seeking informed inputs to facilitate formulation of an arbitration policy that is sophisticated, fair and robust.

It brings together the best minds in arbitration from all stakeholders involved in the dispute resolution process, both from within and outside India, an official statement said.

According to the release, the conference witnessed the heads of leading institutions deliberating on everything that goes into setting up a world-class autonomous arbitration institution.

To achieve the goal of making India a regional hub and global player in domestic and international arbitration, the conference highlighted the need to develop world class arbitral infrastructure in India, it said.

"The mantra of popularising arbitration can be fully covered under an 'A,B,C, D formula' i.e., Access, Backlog, Cost and Delay," said senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

He also stated that one of the reasons of arbitration not attaining the full strength is the contempt for judicial supervision of arbitral proceedings.

The need for trained arbitrators working at the grassroots was highlighted by Justice R.C. Lahoti who advocated for the best human resource and physical infrastructure to provide the ideal atmosphere for qualitative arbitration in India.

The need to place a plausible time slab on settling matters in view of exaggerated costs that might result from protracted arbitration process was also deliberated upon.

--IANS

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