On Saturday, while speaking at the fourth edition of the International Conference on Arbitration in the Era of Globalization, the Chief Justice of India has asked the world to have faith in Indian Judiciary for its independence and Constitutional strength.
In his address, he empasized that arbitration is the best suited dispute resolution mechanism for the globalised world as international arbitration is party-driven, has procedural flexibility and involved domain experts and is a time-bound mechanism structured to deliver immediate relief.
Justice Ramana began his speech by underscoring the transformation of the world from when he first started in the profession.
"Countries across the world have moved from being protectionist states to open economies," he noted.
He opined that a globalised world demands a dispute resolution mechanism that was acceptable and fair to everyone, where both parties got an equal say in the resolution of the dispute.
"Despite living in a closely-knit world, sovereign nations continued to have independent legal regimes and different methods of regulating issues of intellectual property rights, taxation, and even cryptocurrency. Harmonizing diverse interests while trying to achieve a common goal is a huge challenge."
Drawing attention to the importance of uniformity and stability in the process, he informed the audience that India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had entered into a reciprocal arrangement in 2020 for automatic enforcement of foreign decrees by courts of either country.
"India has entered into similar arrangements with United Kingdom, Singapore, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Trinidad & Tobago, New Zealand and Hong Kong, among others," the CJI pointed out.
Discussing whether or not the Indian judicial system was investor-friendly, the Chief Justice said he has an answer that will never change.
"You can trust the Indian judiciary for its absolute independence and inherent constitutional strength to treat all parties equally."
He stressed that Indian courts were known for their pro-arbitration stance, and assisted in arbitration.
"A crucial component of attracting investors is to provide a stable and efficacious mechanism for redressal of disputes. The legislature, executive and judiciary in India, at all levels, are committed to improving the arbitration landscape."
CJI Ramana was not reluctant in pointing out that promoting a culture of arbitration was not a simple task, and that simply having pro-arbitration jurisprudence was not enough. In this regard, he thus called for innovative steps to be taken to this end, and gave his own suggestions on the same:
1. Scope for judicial interference from pre-reference stage to challenging an award needs to be minimised;
2. Timelines for completion of arbitral processes should be strictly adhered to;
3. Execution of arbitral awards needs to be ensured;
4. Autonomy of the party should be respected;
5. Mechanism for regulating the arbitral fee has to be in place;
6. Grounds for challenge to the arbitral award should be limited to the bare minimum;
7. Granting of stay on arbitral awards should not become the norm;
8. Emergency awards should be accorded recognition;
9. Focus has to shift to institutional arbitration;
10. To meet the ever increasing demands, more and more arbitration centres should be promoted;
11. Institutional mechanisms need to be promoted to attract the services of eminent panelists and professional arbitrators. It adds to the credibility of the process;
12. New technologies should be put to use while promoting online interface and proceedings;
13. The practical knowledge of the arbitrator will be a key factor and accordingly needs to be given due importance;
14. Robust training programmes need to be created for training young professionals.
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