Nani Palkhivala Arbitration Centre opens Delhi branch

The Nani Palkhivala Arbitration Centre (NPAC), one of the few recognised institutions of arbitration in the country, on Friday opened up an arbitration centre in the Capital.

The NPAC, set up in Chennai in 2005, has a panel of arbitrators comprising not only retired judges and lawyers but also chartered accountants, civil servants, engineers and other professionals.

Speaking at the inaugural function, senior advocate and NPAC director Arvind P. Datar said, “Our mission is to make institution arbitration the default provision. I hope in the next 10 years this becomes a reality.”

Mr. Datar added, “In Chennai, we had a small beginning. But today, we conduct 120 arbitrations a month. We hope to duplicate the same in Delhi as well.”

Palkhivala remembered

Eminent jurist Fali S. Nariman remembered late Nani Palkhivala as a great personality, “whom many of us have forgotten already”.

“He was the greatest practising lawyer of the post-Constitution period and he is hardly remembered today in the hurly-burly of current day lawyering and politicking. It is time we remember him,” Mr. Nariman added.

Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said, “Arbitration has seen a chequered history in India. It has been plagued with delays, even prior to its initiation.”

“If dispute resolution processes do not go hand in hand with the concept of doing business in India, investors will naturally be apprehensive,” Justice Kaul said, adding, “While in ease of doing business in India, we are ranked 100 of 190 by the World Bank, India was ranked 164 of 190 under the head of enforcing contracts.”

Opening of the NPAC in Delhi will go a long way in creating a centre of excellence in the matter of institutional arbitration, Justice Kaul said.

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said that there are three fronts on which intervention is required to build a strong structure of arbitral eco-structure in India.

The three fronts are: streamlining governance framework for arbitration, creating a positive infrastructure to promote arbitration as this new NPAC centre will be doing, and promoting domestic arbitration and making India as preferred arbitration venue.

Former Law Commission chairman Justice A.P. Shah said though there has been great innovation in technology, such as video and audio recording and other facilities in arbitration process, the government, especially public sector undertakings, oppose any introduction of modern methods.