Hyderabad: Wheels set in motion for international arbitration centre

HYDERABAD: The international arbitration centre at Hyderabad will be both an answer and assurance for international investors who had apprehensions about India’s expensive and time-consuming litigation process.
This was stated by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Friday while addressing businessmen, industrialists and legal authorities after completing the registration process of the trust deed pertaining to the emergence of India’s first international arbitration centre
He added that this was the first step for the emergence of an alternate dispute resolution facility and expected it to be a reality in the next few months.
Justice Lavu Nageswara Rao of the Supreme Court and Justice RV Raveendran, former Supreme Court judge, were made lifetime trustees of the arbitration centre. Justice R Subhash Reddy, also of the Supreme Court and state ministers KT Rama Rao and Indra Karan Reddy, were also present at the event organised at the official residence of Justice Hima Kohli, Chief Justice of Telangana high court.
Chief Justice Ramana said the emergence of the international facility at Hyderabad was his dream. He thanked chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for the speed with which he agreed to housing the facility the moment it was discussed with him in June.
Explaining the huge opportunity, Chief Justice Ramana said Hyderabad’s exports of goods and services worth $22 billion in 2019-20 and the state’s $120 billion gross domestic product besides 12% annual growth would make Hyderabad an apt place for international arbitration and mediation.
He also said that just because it was an international centre did not mean that domestic arbitration disputes could not be handled. He called upon all sections of people and professionals to make use of this facility. “No more waiting for the dispute resolution, once the centre is functional it will ensure quality and quick resolution that is affordable too,” said Chief Justice Ramana.
Justice Nageswara Rao underlined the need for ensuring a conducive environment for enforcement of contracts along with ease of doing business. “Paris, London and Singapore were earlier centres for international arbitration and now Hyderabad would stand next to them,” he said. “For India, this would be a state-of-the-art facility with quick and quality resolution options by the best judicious minds.”
Justice Ramana reminded the audience that economic reforms in India were heralded by another Telangana son, PV Narasimha Rao, during his prime ministerial days in 1995. Seen from this angle, Hyderabad would be an apt place for international arbitration.
KTR in his speech thanked the apex court judges for bringing the international facility to Hyderabad that offered quick resolution to commercial disputes. “We will extend all support to the centre,” he assured.