Arbitration best-suited dispute resolution mechanism for globalised world: CJI

Ramana said that promoting a culture of arbitration is not a simple task and having a pro-arbitration jurisprudence and policy is not enough

Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Saturday said for promoting a culture of arbitration, merely having a favourable jurisprudence and policy was not enough, as some innovative steps like pre-vetting of agreements must be taken.

He suggested evolving a special mechanism of pre-vetting voluntarily by a specially constituted authority of the State, prior to the parties entering into any commercial or investment agreement.

The CJI was speaking at an international conference “Arbitration in the era of globalisation” in Dubai.

"After examining various cases, I find that governments and parties often take the stand that the agreement initially entered into is void or incapable of execution, because it is against public policy or against law. To avoid such belated objections, it is high time to evolve some special mechanism," he said.

Justice Ramana suggested a few essential pre-requisites for arbitration to be effective and successful, including scope for judicial interference from the pre-reference stage to challenging an award needs to be minimised and timelines for completion of arbitral processes should be strictly adhered to.

He said execution of arbitral awards needs to be ensured, the autonomy of the party should be respected and a mechanism for regulating the arbitral fee has to be in place, among others.

Justice Ramana pointed out the Union government made a provision in the latest budget for setting up an arbitration centre in Gujarat.

"I strongly believe that there is a lot of potential for setting up of such new centres. To meet the increasing demands, they will have to cooperate rather than compete," he said.

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