New Wave in Indian Arbitration

New Wave in Indian Arbitration

Under the un-amended Act, arbitrations in India would take years to finalise and as arbitrators decided their own fees, there were incentivised to prolong the arbitrations. On an average, it took 3-5 years. Virtually all awards were challenged in a Court of Law and even international arbitrations with their venue in India were challenged on the same level as domestic awards. Awards were liberally set aside and challenges up to the Supreme Court of India routinely took up to 10 years. Decisions by the Court were that all awards once challenged are automatically stayed. This provided an incentive to keep challenging awards.

23rd October, 2015 - The Act was Amended

First controversy to arise - to which arbitrations and to which Court proceedings do the amendments apply?

This was the first Arbitration Act globally that set time limits for conclusion of arbitrations - 12 months extendable to 18 months. Questions that arose from this:

• Will it work and what happens if the time is extended beyond 18 months?
• A large number of arbitrations in India are all ad-hoc. If parties agree to Indian venues with ICC, LCIA, SIAC rules - how do these time limits work when the rules themselves do not have time limits?

Under the old Act, interim relief was usually granted by Courts and time taken was indefinite. Under the amended Act, arbitrations are given the same powers as Courts for grant of relief and the amended Act contemplates that all interim orders were a subject matter of debate for enforcement.

This exclusive event will present an opportunity to network with and learn from the experiences of some of the leading international practitioners and in-house counsel in this field. The Agenda will comprise of an in-depth presentation on the subject above by:

 

Keynote Speaker

 

 

Mr Hiroo Advani a Senior Partner of Advani & Co. A firm that has been ranked in Chambers as an Arbitration Band 1 firm in India and listed as a top firm for Arbitration in the Legal 500 for 2015.

 

 

 

Which will be followed by a Panel Discussion. Mr Advani will be joined on the Panel by:

 

 

Revantha Sinnetamby is a Director at Hill International

 

 

 

 

Attendance at the MCCA GC Forum is by invitation only. Information on upcoming events and how to become a member is available on its official website: www.mcca.com.my.