Arbitration Act Amendment Bill,2018
Indian Parliament has recently passed Bill No.100 of 2018 for carrying out amendment in The Arbitration and Conciliation Act,1996. Basically the intention of the Government is to make India an international Arbitration hub. But it should also take care at National level. It seems that ad-hoc Arbitration will be matter of past. Though Section 11(1) and (2) are part of the Act. If the Arbitration Agreement doesn’t contain name of the Arbitrator and name couldn’t be agreed upon by the parties the Section 11 Application for appointment of Tribunal shall be made through institutional Arbitration Body. The Bill says “(3A) The Supreme Court and the High Court shall have the power to designate arbitral institutions from time to time, which have been graded by the Council under section 43F, for the purposes of this Act: Provided that in respect of those High Court jurisdictions, where no graded arbitral institutions are available, then, the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court may maintain the panel of arbitrators, for discharging the functions and duties of arbitral institution and any reference to the arbitrator shall be deemed to be an arbitral institution for the purposes of this section and the arbitrator appointed by a party shall be entitled to such fee as prescribed under the Fourth Schedule: Provided further that the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court may, from time to time review the panel of arbitrators.”. So in a state where there is no Institution of Arbitrator available, Chief Justice shall maintain list of Arbitrators. If party is unable to agree on names on filing Section 11 Petition for appointment of an Arbitrator than designated court shall, “”the appointment shall be made, on an application of the party, by the arbitral institution designated by the Supreme Court, in case of international commercial arbitration, or by the High Court, in case of arbitrations other than international commercial arbitration, as the case may be”; It means the designated court shall refer the matter to an Arbitration Institution, who will appoint their own Arbitrators. However the Amendment Bill is silent on maintaining panel of Arbitrators by Institution. But a Chapter is inserted ‘PART IA ARBITRATION COUNCIL OF INDIA 43A. In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires,— (a) “Chairperson” means the Chairperson of the Arbitration Council of India appointed under clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 43C; (b) “Council” means the Arbitration Council of India established under section 43B; (c) “Member” means a Member of the Council and includes the Chairperson. 43B. (1) The Central Government shall, by notification in the Official Gazette, establish, for the purposes of this Act, a Council to be known as the Arbitration Council of India to perform the duties and discharge the functions under this Act. (2) The Council shall be a body corporate by the name aforesaid, having perpetual succession and a common seal, with power, subject to the provisions of this Act, to acquire, hold and dispose of property, both movable and immovable, and to enter into contract, and shall, by the said name, sue or be sued. (3) The head office of the Council […]
Read moreInstitutional Arbitration and Mediation in India- Failure in making Law and its implementation An Analysis
By Shruti Desai Arbitration and Mediation are para-legal alternative to resolve dispute. Though purpose of Arbitration was to provide speedy and less expensive legal platform it failed due to equal amount of time consumed and heavy cost. The Arbitrations were governed by Arbitration Act,1940 ( “Said 1940 Act”) Thereafter in the year 1996 (“the said 1996 Act”) the said 1940 was repealed and the new Act came into effect from 16th August,1996 . The object and reasons says its and Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to domestic arbitration, international commercial arbitration and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards as also to define the law relating to conciliation and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. In the year 2015 again the said 1996 Act was amended. The Bill No 252 of 2015 in its objects and reasons say : ( Extract Only) “2. The Act was enacted to provide for speedy disposal of cases relating to arbitration with least court intervention. With the passage of time, some difficulties in the applicability of the Act have been noticed. Interpretation of the provisions of the Act by courts in some cases have resulted in delay of disposal of arbitration proceedings and increase in interference of courts in arbitration matters, which tend to defeat the object of the Act. With a view to overcome the difficulties, the matter was referred to the Law Commission of India, which examined the issue in detail and submitted its 176th Report. On the basis of the said report, the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2003 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 22nd December, 2003. The said Bill was referred to the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice for examination and Report. The said Committee, submitted its Report to the Parliament on 4th August, 2005, wherein the Committee recommended that since many provisions of the said Bill were contentious, the Bill may be withdrawn and a fresh legislation may be brought after considering its recommendations. Accordingly, the said Bill was withdrawn from the Rajya Sabha. 3. On a reference made again in pursuance of the above, the Law Commission examined and submitted its 246th Report on “Amendments to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996” in August, 2014 and recommended various amendments in the Act. The proposed amendments to the Act would facilitate and encourage Alternative Dispute Mechanism, especially arbitration, for settlement of disputes in a more user-friendly, cost effective and expeditious disposal of cases since India is committed to improve its legal framework to obviate in disposal of cases. 4. As India has been ranked at 178 out of 189 nations in the world in contract enforcement, it is high time that urgent steps are taken to facilitate quick enforcement of contracts, easy recovery of monetary claims and award of just compensation for damages suffered and reduce the pendency of cases in courts and hasten the process of dispute resolution through arbitration, so as to encourage investment and economic activity. 5. As Parliament was not in session and immediate steps were required to be taken to make necessary amendments to […]
Read moreNegotiable Instrument Amendment Bill, 2017
Government has sanctioned the above Bill and may come up in present on-going monsoon session for consideration. Highlights of Bill Section 143 A is inserted after section 143, the following section shall be inserted, namely:— ‘‘143A (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the Court trying an offence under section 138 may order the drawer of the cheque to pay interim compensation to the complainant— (a) in a summary trial or a summons case, where he pleads not guilty to the accusation made in the complaint; and (b) in any other case, upon framing of charge. (2) The interim compensation under sub-section (1) shall not exceed twenty per cent of the amount of the cheque. (3) The interim compensation shall be paid within sixty days from the date of the order under sub-section (1), or within such further period not exceeding thirty days as may be directed by the Court on sufficient cause being shown by the drawer of the cheque. (4) If the drawer of the cheque is acquitted, the Court shall direct the complainant to repay to the drawer the amount of interim compensation, with interest at the bank rate as published by the Reserve Bank of India, prevalent at the beginning of the relevant financial year, within sixty days from the date of the order, or within such further period not exceeding thirty days as may be directed by the Court on sufficient cause being shown by the complainant. (5) The interim compensation payable under this section may be recovered as if it were a fine under section 421 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. (6) The amount of fine imposed under section 138 or the amount of compensation awarded under section 357 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, shall be reduced by the amount paid or recovered as interim compensation under this section.’’. In the principal Act, after section 147, the following section shall be inserted,namely:— ‘‘148. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, in an appeal by the drawer against conviction under section 138, the Appellate Court may order the appellant to deposit such sum which shall be a minimum of twenty per cent. of the fine or compensation awarded by the trial Court: Provided that the amount payable under this sub-section shall be in addition to any interim compensation paid by the appellant under section 143A. (2) The amount referred to in sub-section (1) shall be deposited within sixty days from the date of the order, or within such further period not exceeding thirty days as may be directed by the Court on sufficient cause being shown by the appellant. (3) The Appellate Court may direct the release of the amount deposited by the appellant to the complainant at any time during the pendency of the appeal: Provided that if the appellant is acquitted, the Court shall direct the complainant to repay to the appellant the amount so released, with interest at the bank rate as published by the Reserve Bank of India, prevalent at the beginning of the relevant financial year, within sixty […]
Read moreALL ABOUT INDIA’s NPA,OIL DEFICIT INHERITED BY PRESENT GOVERNMENT THE DATA SUMMARY
We hear from President of opposition party about Note Ban,GST,NPA, Nirav Modi etc in public rallys. I decided to gather information under one roof. After reading it I realized why it was compulsion for present NDA government to go for NoteBan? Why it faced sever cash crunch? December,2014 As per data available on RBI website following was the economic situation as on December,2014. It means when Dr.Manmohan Singh left as Prime Minister this was economic scenario. At end-December 2014, India’s total external debt stock was US$ 461.9 billion, recording an increase of US$ 15.5 billion (3.5 per cent) over the level at end-March 2014 (Table 1). Long-term external debt increased by 6.1 per cent to US$ 376.4 billion. As a proportion of total debt, long-term debt was 81.5 per cent. Short-term debt on the other hand recorded a decline of 6.7 per cent during the period and stood at US$ 85.6 billion at end December 2014. Short-term debt constituted 18.5 per cent of the total external debt at end-December 2014. Annex I and II present the quarter-wise Dis-aggregated data on value of external debt outstanding in terms of the Indian rupee and the US dollar, respectively. External Debt by Original Maturity Long-term debt at US$ 376.4 billion accounted for 81.5 per cent of the total external debt at end-December 2014. Long-term debt recorded an increase of 6.1 per cent at end-December 2014 over the period at end-March 2014 due to rise in commercial borrowings and NRI deposits. Commercial borrowings and NRI deposits taken together accounted for 60.8 per cent of total external debt (long-term and short-term) at end-December 2014 as against 56.8 per cent at end-March 2014. Other components of long-term external debt, however witnessed decline at end-December 2014 over end-March 2014 level. Short-term debt at end-December 2014 witnessed decline over end-March 2014 level due to debt component of FII flows and trade related credit. Short-term debt declined by 6.7 per cent to US$ 85.6 billion at end-December 2014 over the end-March 2014 level. The share of short-term in total external debt was 18.5 per cent at the end of December 2014, vis-a-vis 20.5 per cent at end-March 2014. It means UPA government reduced short term loan but As on 2016 India’s World Bank Loan was $36,348,018/- Oil Pool Account – It is the account into which all revenues earned by the public sector oil companies are deposited and expenditures like subsidies are charged. As part of the dismantling of the APM, the oil pool account has been terminated in 2002. The Government issued bonds in 2002 aggregating Rs 9,000 crore to the state-owned oil companies to liquidate a substantial part of their dues in the oil pool account. Advances Total Gross Advances as on 2013 by Banks were Rs 5371151/- ( In Crores) out of which 183,854/-( In Crores) was NPA. During third phase of growth of UPA government of Dr.Manmohan Singh 2009 to 2012: During this period, growth in credit as well as NPAs slowed down in 2010. However, by end-March 2012, there was a sharp contrast in the movement of both, with credit growth witnessing a sharp […]
Read moreCan there be Assignment of Parenting Rights, whether it is legal? Can it be done by an Agreement?
A very unique query I came across a query, “ Can there be an Agreement between Hindu parents of a minor girl child assigning Guardianship Rights to mother?” The guardian-de-jure or assignment of parenting rights is not a new concept in India. It dates back to more than 3000 years ago in the epic period of Mahabharata. Krishna was born to Vasudev and Devki but was handed over to Nandji and was brought up by Jashodaji. This is very amazing query. The reason of handing over parenting right is not so easy, as it involves ups and downs of emotions. The reason may be couple going abroad for employment, divorce or understanding between couple if husband is having second wife to avoid court proceedings, wife consents silently to Second marriage and allows adultery or Bigamy for sake of child and custody given to her absolutely. In India we have seen in public life with a very prominent Bollywood couple. Any act of adoption, matrimonial settlement, custody affects the child’s right to succession. It is therefore very much necessary to understand various provisions of law. Government of India had set up a Commission in order to emphasize the “welfare of the child” as the paramount consideration in adjudicating custody and guardianship matters, the Law Commission of India decided to study the issue of adopting a shared parenting system in India of a Single Retired Judge Shri A.P.Shah. Commission after several rounds of discussions and deliberations, the views of the Commission centered around (i) strengthening the welfare principle in the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 and emphasize its relevance in each aspect of guardianship and custody related decision-making; (ii) providing for equal legal status of both parents with respect to guardianship and custody; (iii) providing detailed guidelines to help decision-makers assess what custodial and guardianship arrangement serves the welfare of the child in specific situations; and (iv) providing for the option of awarding joint custody to both parents, in certain circumstances conducive to the welfare of the child. This report of the Law Commission reviewed the current laws dealing with custody and guardianship, namely, the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 and the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, and recommends legislative amendments to achieve the following objectives: Strengthen the welfare principle in the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 and emphasize its relevance in each aspect of guardianship and custody related decision-making Provide for equal legal status of both parents with respect to guardianship and custody Provide detailed guidelines to help decision makers assess what custodial and guardianship arrangement serves the welfare of the child in specific situations. Provide for the option of awarding joint custody to both parents, in certain circumstances conducive to the welfare of the child. What is not covered in this report is when child becomes orphan due to accident or any other reason child’s custody whom to be given. Who can give away child in adoption in such cases? As the same is governed by Guardian and Wards Act,1890. In India Hindu children are govern by the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956. It is an Act to […]
Read moreSpecial General Meeting – Provisions under Bye-Laws of Co-operative Housing Society
In a recent matter the Queriest has raised following queries:- Whether request for a Special General Meeting is prerogative of Society Members only? Can Chairman OR management committee call for a Special General Meeting at any time or several times in a year for getting approval of a Agenda prepared by them ((not against a requisition from members) ? Can Chairman or Management Committee call for a Special General Meeting against a requisition received from society members, signed by only 5 members? Is it that Chairman or management committee can call Special General Meeting ONLY AND ONLY when they receive a Requisition signed by 20% members of society, OR a request letter from Registering Authority OR a request letter from Housing federation and such SPGM to be called by Chairman or managing committee at any time within one month from the date of such Requisition or letter? Can Chairman OR Managing Committee declare the “Decisions made in a Special General Meeting ” as invalid? Under what circumstances a Conducted Special General Meeting can be declared as invalid by Chairman OR Managing Committee? To understand questions we need to know relevant provisions of law. The Maharashtra Co-operative Society Act,1960 is the parent law which regulates the Co-operative Society. SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING. (1) A special general meeting may be called at any time by the Chairman special or by a majority of the committee and shall be called within one month— (i) on a requisition in writing of one-fifth of the members of the society of members the number of which is specified in the by-laws for the purpose, whichever is lower, or (ii) at the instance of the Registrar, or (iii) in the case of a society, which is a member of a federal society, at the instance of the committee of such federal society. (2) Where any officer or a member of the committee, whose duty it was to call such meeting, without reasonable excuse, fails to call such meeting, the Registrar may by order declare such officer or member disqualified, for being a member of the committee for such period not exceeding three years, as he may specify in such order; and if the officer is a servant of the society, he may impose on him a penalty not exceeding one hundred rupees. Before making an order under this sub-section, the Registrar shall give, or cause to be given, a reasonable opportunity to the person concerned of showing cause against the action proposed to be taken in regard to him. (3) If a special general meeting of a society is not called in accordance with the requisition referred to in sub-section (1), the Registrar or any person authorised by him in this behalf, shall have power to call such meeting, and that meeting shall be deemed to be a meeting duly called by the committee. (4) The Registrar shall have power to order that the expenditure incurred in calling a meeting under subsection (3) shall be paid out of the funds of the society or by such person or persons who, in the opinion of the Registrar, were […]
Read moreExcepted Matters and Arbitration
A very interesting issue came up in an Arbitration matter of engineering contract with our firm. It was an engineering contract and terms were laid down under Tender. Various powers and terms were laid down which were given to the Engineer. However, as far as Arbitration is concerned there was a clause in Tender document by which certain issues only can be referred to arbitration and those which is bestowed upon Engineer cannot be referred to arbitration. The said clause was, in general, we see in most of the engineering contracts. It was as under: Where there was a clause in the Tender Document that, “ Except where otherwise provided in the Contract all questions and disputes, relating to the meaning of specifications, designs, drawings and instructions herein before mentioned and as to the quality of workmanship or materials used on the work or as arising, out of or relating to the Contract, designs, drawings, specifications, estimates, instructions, orders or those conditions concerning the works, or the execution or failure to execute the same whether arising during the progress of the work or after the completion or abandonment thereof shall be referred to arbitration subject to the provisions of the Arbitration Act, 1996 or any statutory modification or re-enactment thereof and the rules made thereunder and for the time being in force.” The Claimant referred the dispute relating to unpaid running Bill , which was within jurisdiction of the Engineer. The Respondents objected the claims on the grounds that it is Excepted Matters and Tribunal has no jurisdiction. Now let us see the provisions of Arbitration Act,1996 Section 28 of the Arbitration Act,1996 reads as under: Section 28 – Rules applicable to substance of dispute (1) Where the place of arbitration is situated in India,— (a) in an arbitration other than an international commercial arbitration, the arbitral tribunal shall decide the dispute submitted to arbitration in accordance with the substantive law for the time being in force in India; (b) in international commercial arbitration— (i) the arbitral tribunal shall decide the dispute in accordance with the rules of law designated by the parties as applicable to the substance of the dispute; (ii) any designation by the parties of the law or legal system of a given country shall be construed, unless otherwise expressed, as directly referring to the substantive law of that country and not to its conflict of laws rules; (iii) failing any designation of the law under clause (a) by the parties, the arbitral tribunal shall apply the rules of law it considers to be appropriate given all the circumstances surrounding the dispute. (2) The arbitral tribunal shall decide ex aequo et bono or as amiable compositeur only if the parties have expressly authorized it to do so. (3) In all cases, the arbitral tribunal shall decide in accordance with the terms of the contract and shall take into account the usages of the trade applicable to the transaction. While studying on this terms “Excepted Matters” we came across a judgment of Queens Bench Decision in Minster Trust Ltd Vs Traps Tractors LD & Ors [1951] 1 […]
Read moreGovernment softens plan to criminalise unwitting offshore tax evasion
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