Supreme Court judge Justice B.V. Nagarathna
| Photo Credit: PTI
Prioritising the appointment of women among the court-appointed arbitrators will go a long way in addressing the criticism of arbitration being a male preserve, said Justice B.V. Nagarathna, judge of the Supreme Court of India.
Delivering the inaugural address at the first edition of ‘Bengaluru Alternative Dispute Resolution Week’, she said that diversifying the pool of court-appointed arbitrators to include practitioners and sector-related experts, and prioritising women arbitrators amongst them, has the potential to usher in far-reaching changes in India’s arbitration system, an alternative dispute resolution system.
Why India lags?
Justice Aravind Kumar, a judge of the Supreme Court, in his keynote address on “expanding of horizon marching towards world class arbitral institution”, said that India lags in becoming an arbitration destination owing to issues related to legal and regulatory framework, cultural and structural barriers, perception issues, and competition from established international arbitration centre.
Perceptions like concerns about neutrality, quality and efficiency of Indian arbitral institutions have deterred international parties from choosing India as their arbitral destination, said Justice Kumar.
He stated that India, and Bengaluru in particular, has the potential to become a global hub for arbitration if world-class arbitration facilities are set up by ironing out the creases and with the commitment and collaboration of legal professional, policy makers, and businesses.
He also emphasised that it is time to open arbitration centres in tier-two and three cities as pendency of cases are high in courts there.
All classes of litigants
High Court of Karnataka Chief Justice N.V. Anjaria said that while building a healthy arbitration system, it is necessary to ensure that this mechanism does not remain confined to businesses and the commercial sector or does not remain an elite system of resolution dispute. It has to cater to the need of all classes of litigants and thus the arbitral process has to be made transparent, dependable economical, honest, he said.
“It has to reform itself as a litigant service process as even smaller and relatively poor class of litigants should be able to recourse to arbitration process,” said Chief Justice Anjaria.