Govt sets up panel to make arbitration more efficient

Seeking to make India a hub of international arbitration and to accelerate the system of alternate dispute resolution, the government on Thursday set up a high level committee to recommend ways to make arbitration more efficient.

The committee will be headed by retired Supreme Court judge B N Srikrishna. It will submit its report in 90 days. “In order to ensure speedy resolution of commercial disputes and to facilitate effective conduct of international and domestic arbitrations raised under various agreements, it has been considered necessary to go into various factors to accelerate arbitration mechanism and strengthen the arbitration ecosystem in the country.

“It is also important to examine specific issues and roadmap required to make India a robust centre for international and domestic arbitration,” Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters. The minister said the government has been taking legislative and administrative initiatives on arbitration with an aim of minimising court intervention, bring down costs, fix time lines for expeditious disposal, and ensure neutrality of arbitrator and enforcement of awards.