Arbitration Law Of India: A Critical Analysis

India opened a fresh chapter in its arbitration laws in 1996 when it enacted the Arbitration and Conciliation Act ('the Act' or 'new Act'). This article presents salient features of the Act and analyses its workings in its near one decade of existence.

A. The Pre-1996 Position

Prior to 1996, the arbitration law of the country was governed by a 1940 Act. This Act was largely premised on mistrust of the arbitral process and afforded multiple opportunities to litigants to approach the court for intervention. Coupled with a sluggish judicial system, this led to delays rendering arbitrations inefficient and unaractive. A telling comment on the working of the old Act can be found in a 1981 judgment of the Supreme Court where the judge (Justice DA Desai) in anguish remarked 'the way in which the proceedings under the (1940) Act are conducted and without an exception challenged in Courts, has made lawyers laugh and legal philosophers weep ...'. ¹