Parties Must Agree To Have Their Disputes Resolved Through Arbitration – Even Under Section 89 Of CPC!

A perusal of the scheme of the provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 [ACA] will make it clear that the legal basis for resolving disputes between parties to an agreement is the arbitration agreement between them.

Under Civil Procedure Code, 1908 [CPC], the trial procedure involved in adjudication of disputes is quite exhaustive. Pleadings commencing from plaint, written statement of the defendants and additional reply of the plaintiff to the written statement of the defendants mark the written pleadings. There would be also interlocutory and intervening applications taken out by one or the other party which may expand the scope of the case and delay the adjudication process. [To this extent, there may not be any difference in civil court or arbitration or in any other quasi-judicial forum such as the Company Law Board, though the nomenclature of the pleadings may be different]. Thereafter admissions and denials of evidence will take place and