Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004 |
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Industry & Economy
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Courts/Legal Issues `Use alternative dispute settlement options more' Our Bureau
Chennai , March 22 IF disputes take too long to get settled in courts, the least to blame are the courts themselves. Delays occur because lawyers, and indeed the litigants themselves often prefer a case to be long-drawn. Mr Justice V.S. Sirpurkar of the Madras High Court left this message with the participants of a seminar on arbitration, organised here by the Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Delivering his address, Mr Justice Sirpurkar observed that a 2001 law empowering a judge to call upon the litigants to settle their dispute through a mediator was "fought tooth and nail by lawyers." The law — Section 89 of the Civil Procedure Code — allows a judge to initiate conciliation through arbitration. Lawyers, fearing loss of business, are still not happy with it, Mr G.K. Kwatra, Executive Director, The Indian Council for Arbitration, told Business Line. Mr Justice Sirpurkar called for more use of `alternative dispute settlement' options, such as arbitration. He noted that there were options for institutional arbitration in areas such as intellectual property rights, information technology, construction and maritime affairs, but "these are all for the wealthy." "For the common man, the best option is Section 89," he said. But the question is, if a judge, using his powers derived from Section 89, gets the litigants to agree to arbitration, who should be the arbitrator? Here comes the relevance of the Indian Council for Arbitration. Today, many arbitrators are retired judges.
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