Mr. Justice T.S. Sivagnanam Judge, High Court of Madras Inaugurates SICCI Centre for ADR
SICCI
CENTRE FOR ADR Inaugurated
Chennai, April, 2019: India has an
estimated 31 million cases pending in various courts. As of 31.12.2015 there
were 59,272 cases pending in the Supreme Court of India, around 3.8 million
cases pending in the High Courts and around 27 million pending before the
subordinate judiciary. 26% of cases, more than 8.5 million, are more than 5
years old. It has been estimated that 12 million Indians await trial in
criminal cases throughout the country. On an average it takes twenty years for
a real estate or land dispute to be resolved.
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Hon’ble Mr. Justice T S Sivgnanam inaugurates The SICCI Centre for
ADR
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The dispute
resolution process has a huge impact on the Indian economy and global
perception on “doing business” in India. This is clearly indicated by World
Bank rating on Ease Of Doing Business 2016 which has ranked India 131 out of
189 countries on how easy it is for private companies to follow regulations.
The study notes that India takes as much as 1,420 days and 39.6% of the claim
value for dispute resolution. This is higher than that of OECD countries as
well as that of South Asia’s regional averages. Globally, India stands at 178
in the ranking of 189 economies on the ease of enforcing contracts. Russian
Federation rank 5, China ranks 7 and Mexico rank 41.
Need for a
vibrant Arbitration Act
With growing
international commercial trade and agreements, international arbitration is
growing manifold. To develop India as a global hub for international
arbitration it is important that we open ourselves to the outside world and incorporate
best practices for creating word class Institutional and legal procedure. Now
India is embracing modern international commercial arbitration and mediation.
As we all know, much of the remarkable growth of international commercial
arbitration in recent years has taken place here in Asia. There is a global
shift of the world’s economic pendulum towards Asia. Arbitration and ADR will
follow the trend of global economy.
According to
Mr. R. Ganapathi, President, SICCI welcomes the Arbitration and Conciliation
(Amendment) Act 2015 which has brought about certain noteworthy modifications
which would be critical in supporting international arbitration in the country.
One of these is the provision permitting arbitral institutions to create their
own rules consistent with the Act to ensure that arbitrations are swift and
effective. India has diverse and useful human resources in law as well as other
disciplines which can help support and sustain the domestic arbitration
ecosystem in India. Legal reforms are certainly a step in the right direction
to strengthen the arbitration. Needless to say, that regular amendment in the
Arbitration laws to keep abreast with economic changes would be needed.
However, given that India has already done the needful in this regard recently,
the present need is reforms in the implementation of the legislative changes by
the judiciary along with building of institutional capacity in the country.
Recently the
new Bill titled “Arbitration & Conciliation Amendment Bill, 2018” had proposed
to formulate Arbitration Council of India (ACI) to grade arbitration
institution and enlist arbitrators in India.
Against the
above backdrop, The SICCI Centre for ADR has been created and rules formulated
which are tailor made for businesses. This centre was declared open by Hon’ble
Mr. Justice T S Sivgnanam on Monday the 8th April 2019 at the SICCI
premises, No 6 Esplanade, Chennai 600 108 Ph : 25342055
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