The Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2015,
has been approved by the Union Cabinet on August 26, 2015. It is
hoped that the Bill will be introduced and passed by the Parliament
in the Winter session and will become law by early next year.
While the draft of the Bill is yet to be scrutinised in full,
the salient features of the proposed amendments have been released
and are as follow:
1.Appointment of arbitrator: Under Section 12
of the Act, a proposed arbitrator shall berequired to disclose in
writing about the existence of any interest of relationship which
can create justifiable doubts regarding his neutrality. This
amendment has been brought into effect keeping in mind the
international best practices, and to bring the Indian arbitration
practice in conformity with the IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of
Interest.
