Cabinet Approves The Arbitration And Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2018, Read The Salient Features

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the Arbitration and Conciliation Bill, 2018 for introduction in the Parliament.The Amendment is intended to facilitate achieving the goal of improving institutional arbitration by establishing an independent body to lay down standards, make arbitration process more party friendly, cost-effective. However, to give a boost to institutional, arbitration vis-a-vis ad hoc arbitration and to remove some practical difficulties in applicability of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 2015, a High Level Committee under the Chairmanship of Justice B. H. Srikrishna, Retired Judge, Supreme Court of India, was constituted by the Central Government, The HLC was given the mandate to examine the effectiveness of existing arbitration mechanism by studying the functioning and performance of Arbitral Institutions in India; to devise a roadmap to promote institutionalized arbitration mechanisms in India; to evolve an effective and efficient arbitration eco-system for commercial dispute resolution and submit a Report on suggested reforms in the statute. It is envisaged that parties may directly approach arbitral institutions designated by the Supreme Court for International Commercial arbitration and in other cases the concerned High Courts. A new section 87 is proposed to be inserted to clarify that unless parties agree otherwise the Amendment Act 2015 shall not apply to Arbitral proceedings.which have commenced before the commencement of the Amendment Act of 2015 Court proceedings arising out of or in relation to such arbitral proceedings irrespective of whether such court proceedings are commenced prior to or after the commencement of the Amendment Act of 2015 and shall apply only to Arbitral proceedings commenced on or after the commencement of the Amendment Act of 2015 and to court proceedings arising out of or in relation to such Arbitral proceedings.