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New Delhi: India can also become an international arbitration hub like Singapore if the executive and judiciary work together towards achieving the same, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Sunday.
The Law Minister said that the same would need uniform rules as well as the backing of both the judiciary and the executive.
“Strong robust arbitration will have to have the backing of the executive and the judiciary,” he said.
He also cited the success story of Singapore in this regard.
“The Delhi International Arbitration Cenre has 6,373 cases listed for arbitration, and 4,900 cases were heard in 2022. We have to seize this opportunity. I feel it is essential to recall the success story of Singapore. Today anybody can reach Delhi from any part of the world. I do not think anybody finds India geographically distant. If Singapore can become an international arbitration hub, why cannot India? Nobody can stop India apart from the Indians,” he said.
The Law Minister speaking at the Delhi Arbitration Weekend (DAW) organised by the Delhi International Arbitration Centre.
Rijiju said that he has, in his official capacity, tried to assess why ad-hoc arbitrations are preferred in the country.
“If India has to become a global hub of arbitration we have to sit with the international practice. Since majority prefers ad hoc arbitration, it becomes susceptible to judicial intervention.”
He added that the country will have to be mindful of the time taken to resolve a dispute, which was estimated to be 1,145 days by a World Bank report.
“Without support from the judiciary, ease of doing business and ease of living will remain a distant dream,” the Law Minister emphasised.
He also stressed on the importance of paperless courts, and added that the allocation for e-Courts in Union budget has been done keeping that objective in mind.
On use of artificial intelligence in arbitration, he opined that it can be used to assist arbitrators and in drafting of awards, apart from helping identify trends.
“The aim is to encourage arbitration for smaller, contractual disputes especially where parties are small or medium-scale business owners.”
On the proposed mediation bill, he said that the draft bill was referred to the parliamentary committee and several inputs for amendments have been received.
“We referred to huge amount of sources including a large pool of retired judges from the Supreme Court. But the suggestions by the committee also were very important, and when the [new] draft bill comes out it will be wonderful,” he said.
