Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has said that India could become an international arbitration hub like Singapore, in case the executive and judiciary worked in tandem.
Speaking at the Delhi Arbitration Weekend (DAW), organised by the Delhi International Arbitration Centre on Sunday, the Law Minister observed that a strong robust arbitration would need backing of both the executive and the judiciary, along with uniform rules.
He cited the success story of Singapore in this regard, stating that India needs to seize this opportunity.
As per the Law Minister, anybody could reach Delhi from any part of the world today and nobody found the country geographically distant. Nobody could stop India from becoming an international arbitration hub except the Indians, he noted.
Rijiju said the Delhi International Arbitration Centre currently had 6,373 cases listed for arbitration, while 4,900 cases were heard in 2022.
In his official capacity, the Union Minister said he had tried to assess why ad-hoc arbitrations were preferred in the country.
He observed that if the country wanted to become a global hub of arbitration, there was a need to adopt the international practice. Since the majority preferred ad hoc arbitration, it became susceptible to judicial intervention, noted Rijiju.
He said the country should remain mindful of the time taken to resolve a dispute, which was estimated to be 1,145 days by a World Bank report.
As per the Law Minister, the ease of doing business and the ease of living would remain a distant dream till the Judiciary supported them.
Stressed on the importance of paperless courts, Rijiju said the allocation for e-Courts in the Union budget has been done keeping that objective in mind.
The Law Minister also talked about the use of artificial intelligence in arbitration, stating that AI could be used to assist arbitrators and in drafting of awards, apart from helping identify trends.
He said the aim was to encourage arbitration for smaller, contractual disputes, especially where parties were small or medium-scale business owners.
Rijiju said the draft of the proposed Mediation Bill was referred to the Parliamentary Committee and several inputs for amendments have been received.
He revealed that the government referred to a large number of sources, including a large pool of retired judges from the Supreme Court over the Bill. The suggestions made by the committee were also very important and when the new draft bill comes out, it would be wonderful, added the Law Minister.