International Commercial Arbitration in India

The Indian arbitral regime has witnessed its share of ups and downs with the constantly over-looming air of criticism, scrutiny and widely expressed aversion towards the mechanism for resolving ICAs. In the past, there have innumerable circumstances when international parties have been victims of the excessive intervention of the court and the enormous delay in reaching a conclusive determination of their disputes through arbitration. Such arbitrations in the past were marred with the procedural and substantive lacunas present at every step on the way in the 1996 Act.

Due to such experiences, the arbitral regime in India seemed more and more unattractive with most of such international commercial disputes being centered outside India only to avoid all the hurdles and barriers that 1996 presented. This can be corroborated from the Annual Report released by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (hereinafter referred to as “SIAC”), which shows that the highest number of filings came from parties with Indian nationality with a total of 91 cases filed. This shows that India was not a preferred destination to carry out arbitration due to the shortcomings of the 1996 Act.

In light of these prevailing facts and circumstances coupled with the new policy regime concentrating on foreign trade and investment, it became imperative that an amendment is brought about to cure all the deficiencies that were prevalent in the arbitral regime in India regulated by the 1996 Act. It was with this in light that several changes were introduced through the 2015 Act, which has changed the entire landscape of ICAs and its conduct under the Indian arbitral regime.

This paper takes strides towards highlighting the amendments and their impact on ICA with seat in India. The amendments will be analyzed through an in-depth study into the legislative idea behind each of them along with their present-day scope and applicability. Since this paper will be delving into aspects of ICA with seat in India, it will be provisions of Part I of the 2015 Act that will be scrutinized.