Law min weighs steps after SC nixes arbitration model

Supreme Court has struck down the practice of unilateral appointment of arbitrators

- Manas Pimpalkhare

The Union law and justice ministry will discuss judgments by the Supreme Court (SC) to amend the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, two people aware of the matter said. This follows an SC judgment on 8 November deeming illegal the unilateral arbitrator appointment process in disputes involving the government and private parties.

The Centre's move comes after a 15-day public consultation ended on 3 November, where stakeholders suggested various amendments to expedite dispute resolution.

"Now that public consultations are over, we will have more internal meetings and discussions...we will discuss some SC judgments that have come," one of the officials mentioned above said, requesting anonymity, adding that the ministry will also discuss stakeholder inputs on the law.

An email query to the law and justice ministry did not elicit a response till press time.