Union Government Constitutes Expert Committee for Reforms in Arbitration and Conciliation Act

Union Government Constitutes Expert Committee for Reforms in Arbitration and Conciliation Act

A sixteen-member expert committee has been constituted by the Ministry of Law & Justice which is headed by Dr. T.K. Vishwanathan, Former Secretary of the Department of Legal Affairs, with the objective to examine the working of arbitration law in India and recommending reforms in the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.

The committee is set to submit its recommendations within 30 days. The initiative has been taken to limit the requirement for parties to seek judicial intervention by approaching the Court of law.

The Committee is headed by Dr. T.K. Vishwanathan Former Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs as the Chairperson. Following are the members:

a) N. Venkatraman, ASGI

b) Gourab Banerji, Senior Advocate

c) A.K. Ganguli, Senior Advocate

d) Shardul Shroff, Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldass

e) Bahram Vakil, Partner, AZB Partners

f) Saurav Agarwal, Advocate

g) Representative of NITI Aayog

h) Representative of Enterprises/ CPSES

i) Representative of Department of Confederation of Public Indian Industries (CIL)

j) Representative of NHAI/MORTH

k) Representative of Ministry of Railways

l) Representative of Department of Economic Affairs

m) Representative of Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs/ CPWD

n) Representative of Legislative Department

o) Rajiv Mani, Additional Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs

The consolidated Terms of Reference for the working of the Expert Committee includes the following:

(i) Evaluate and analyze the operation of the arbitration ecosystem in the country, including the working of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, highlighting its strengths, weaknesses, and challenges vis-à-vis other important foreign jurisdictions.

(ii) Recommend a framework of model arbitration system, which is efficient, effective, economical and caters to the requirements of the users.

(iii) Devise strategy for developing a competitive environment in the arbitration services market for domestic and international parties that can sub-serve the interests of the users, particularly in building a regime of cost-effective arbitration, through arbitration professionals.

(iv) Propose measures to fast track enforcement of award by suggesting modification to existing provision relating to setting aside of award and appeal to lend finality to arbitral award, expeditiously.

(v) Recommend statutory means to minimize recourse to judicial authorities/ courts in arbitration centric dispute resolution mechanisms.

(vi) Suggest administrative mechanism/ SOP for minimizing routine challenge to arbitral award by the Government in disputes involving them.

(vii) Recommend principles for determination of costs of arbitration.

(viii) Recommend principles for determination of fees of arbitrators.

(ix) Recommend a charter of duties for guidance of arbitral tribunal, parties, and arbitral institutions.

(x) Examine the feasibility of enacting separate laws for domestic arbitration and international arbitration and for enforcement of certain foreign awards.