Singapore deliberately chose to hype up the copy-paste of arbitral awards by former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra to put Indian arbitrators in a bad light, Justice Hemant Gupta, Chairperson, New Delhi International Arbitration Centre said on Saturday.
Speaking at an India Legal Research Foundation symposium, Justice Gupta said though there may have been a mistake, the Singapore Supreme Court should not have done that.
Justice Hemant Gupta highlighted India’s capability to handle all disputes, citing abundant expertise across fields. He even suggested sports arbitration as a new genre, stating “there is no dispute without resolution” and stressing the need to trust Indian citizens’ dispute resolution abilities.
In an informal interaction with APN News Editor-in-Chief Rajshri Rai, he said judges have to relearn the law when they shift to arbitration as it doesn’t follow common law codes.
Speaking on adjudicating arbitral awards, Justice Gupta said people in the field of arbitration were hopeful of the setting up of an appellate arbitration tribunal.
He said the government wants to lessen the justice tier but powers of the High Courts and the Supreme Court can’t be curtailed. Adding one more jurisdiction, that of arbitral awards, to high courts will be burdensome.
Justice Gupta suggested the appellate arbitration tribunal could be a five-member body including a Supreme Court judge.
Dwelling on the India International Arbitration Centre, he said the centre trains legal professionals in award writing to upgrade skills.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in arbitration was also discussed. He said though the use of AI in arbitration is a grey area, its use should be deliberated upon to understand where all it can be put to use. AI can’t replace humans, added Justice Gupta.
Asked how soon can the emergency arbitration process begin, Justice Gupta said on an emergency arbitration request, appointments can be made to a panel in two days. This is done quickly to avoid the intervention of civil court when invoked by other parties.
Justice Gupta added that they had proposed setting up an artibration bar with the Attorney General. Unlike court orders, arbitral awards don’t make it to the news and foster greater transparency. On this, Justice Gupta said if the awards can be redacted and made public, it will promote transparency in the process. This should be done the consent of the parties concerned, he said.
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