Indian Courts should shed their habit of appointing only retired judges as arbitrators, former Supreme Court judge Justice L Nageswara Rao recently said.
Justice Rao underlined the presence of experienced legal professionals of various age groups who could be appointed instead.
"Why is it only judges are appointed as arbitrators by the courts? For the past one and a half years after my retirement, I have been speaking at various podiums outside this country also that it is time that Indian courts should shed this habit of only appointing judges as arbitrators. There are legal professionals of various age groups who have experience in arbitration who should be appointed," the former judge said.
Justice Rao also highlighted a positive shift in mindset within the Supreme Court and the High Courts of Delhi and Bombay where legal professionals are now being appointed as arbitrators.
"There is also a refreshing change which I have been seeing in the arbitrations which I am conducting. I have bureaucrats sitting with me, I also have technocrats who have been appointed as arbitrators by parties, who are sitting with me. They are as good as judges," he added.
The retired judge was chairing a session on March 7 on 'Selection and Challenges of Arbitrators' at the ongoing Delhi Arbitration Weekend (DAW) 2024.
The panel included Director General of London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) Prof. Dr. Jacomijn van Haersolte-van Hof, Partner and Head of India pratice at Three Crown LLP Manish Aggarwal, Partner and Head of International Arbitration & India practice at Stewarts Law Sherina Petit and DSK Legal Managing Partner Anand Desai.Justice Rao stated that even parties to arbitration also prefer judges as arbitrators for their disputes due to the expectation of a judge being impartial and independent.However, this is a serious problem because it is challenging to find efficient retired judges given their busy schedules, he opined."So what do we do?" he questioned. "So should we start looking for other people who have expertise in the field of arbitration instead of just sticking to retired judges. It's not an old boys school. So it's better there is diversity on this aspect," he suggested.Justice Rao once again ddressed the issue during a Q&A session with the audience towards the end of the session.A member of the audience underlined that although Delhi High Court appoints lawyers as arbitrators, it does so mostly in low value disputes. She questioned why the trend should not change.Justice Rao concurred and stated that in his experience, most retired judges have extremely busy schedules and highlighted the success of Indian arbitrators worldwide.He said that youth in India who specialize in arbitrations should be appointed more often as arbitrators."You need legal knowledge, definitely. So why restrict it to a judge? Not necessary. In an arbitration, you don't need a judge. There are arbitrations where you need experts. There are arbitrations where lawyers would do as well as judges," he stated.
TAGS: Justice L Nageswara Rao Indian Courts Arbitrators Retired judges
