Arbitration Act to be amended as part of judicial reforms process, says Union Law Minister

SULLIA (DK DISTRICT): As part of proposed judicial reforms process, the union law ministry is working to amend the Arbitration Act, which will lay focus on alternate disputes redressal mechanism, union minister for law and justice D V Sadananda Gowda said. The amendment, he noted, has been necessitated as stakeholders concerned are not reposing much faith in the arbitration process in India due to the prevalent legal system here.
A lot of disputes involving Indian and foreign companies are referred to countries such as the United Kingdom or Singapore for either reconciliation or arbitration, the minister said adding that the ministry will strive to place the amendment before the next session of the parliament. Besides, given the pendency of 2.68 crore-odd cases before across India, it is time that these alternate disputes redressal mechanisms were strengthened, he said.
Reasons for pendency include delay in appointment of judges at various levels as lack of infrastructure for the judiciary. In addition, efforts should also be made to settle cases outside court, the minister said, adding, the ministry is also looking at bringing forth a new litigation policy that will settle government plaints through ADR mechanism. “Around 50% of cases are those filed by the government or PSUs owned by the government,” he noted.
Averring that the above process of reforms might take around six months, Sadananda Gowda said in addition to popularizing ADR mechanisms, the second phase of digitizing the Indian judiciary at a cost of Rs 2395 crore will be started in next fiscal. “In the first phase ending March 2015, large number of subordinate courts have and will be digitized,” he said, adding this includes conducting trials using information technology solutions.