Cabinet approves bill to create council for grading arbitral institutions

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a bill that provides for the speedy appointment of arbitrators through designated institutions and seeks to create an independent body to grade arbitral institutions.

The bill, which seeks to amend the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, would be introduced in the ongoing session of parliament, sources said.

They said that the bill is a part of the efforts of the government to encourage institutional arbitration for settlement of disputes and make India a centre of robust Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechsm.

The Amendments in the Act will facilitate achieving the goal of improving institutional arbitration by establishing an independent body to lay down standards, make arbitration process more party friendly, cost-effective and ensure timely disposal of arbitration cases, they said.

The bill seeks to facilitate speedy appointment of arbitrators through designated arbitral institutions by the Supreme Court or the High Court without having any requirement to approach the court in this regard.

It envisages that parties may directly approach arbitral institutions designated by the Supreme Court for International Commercial arbitration and in other cases the concerned High Courts.

It provides for the creation of Arbitration Council of India (ACI) which will grade arbitral institution and accredit arbitrators by laying down norms and take all such steps as may be necessary to promote and encourage arbitration, conciliation, mediation, and other ADR Mechsm.

( With inputs from ANI )