Supreme Court appoints senior advocate Gourab Banerji as sole arbitrator in a case

Supreme Court appoints senior advocate Gourab Banerji as sole arbitrator in a case

The Chief Justice of India recently suggested improving the arbitration regime in the country

The Supreme Court has appointed Senior Advocate Gourab Banerji as the sole arbitrator in a plea seeking the appointment of an arbitrator in the Optisol Business Solutions Pvt Ltd vs The Chopras Global Holdings Pte Ltd case.

While disposing of the petition, the order was passed by a bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala.

The order read, "In view of the arbitration agreement between the parties, Gourab Banerji, senior counsel, is appointed as a sole arbitrator under the provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996."

Recently, at the inaugural session of the Delhi Arbitration Weekend, while sharing his suggestions on how to improve the arbitration regime in India, the CJI had spoken on the need for parties to appoint lawyers as arbitrators more often. He noted that sometimes, promising candidates were overlooked and more established names were chosen.

The CJI remarked, "Retired judges are doing amazing work in the arbitration space, but we cannot look only to retired judges while appointing arbitrators. There are more promising candidates who are overlooked in favour of a more established name. This leads to the faulty perception that India does not have as many qualified arbitrators as it requires."

While advocate Krishna Kumar Singh appeared for the petitioner, Optisol Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd., advocate Rashmi Nandakumar represented the respondent, Chopras Global Holdings Pte Ltd.