Conundrum Around The Fourth Schedule Vis-À-Vis Section 38 Of The Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996

INTRODUCTION

"The remedy for healthy development of arbitration in India is to disclose the fees structure before the appointment of arbitrators so that any party who is unwilling to bear such expenses can express his unwillingness. Another remedy is Institutional Arbitration where the arbitrator's fee is pre-fixed. The third is for each High Court to have a scale of arbitrator's fee suitably calibrated with reference to the amount involved in the dispute. This will also avoid different designates prescribing different fee structures. By these methods, there may be a reasonable check on the fees and the cost of arbitration, thereby making arbitration, both national and international, attractive to the litigant public. Reasonableness and certainty about total costs are the key to the development of arbitration. Be that as it may."¹ The abovementioned observations of Justice R.V. Raveendran highlight that one of the primary concerns regarding arbitration in