5 ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS – INDIA E-MAGAZINE WWW.LEGALBUSINESSONLINE.COM Law Firm Hires IQBAL KHAN LEAVING Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co JOINING J Sagar Associates PRACTICE M&A LOCATION Mumbai POSITION Practice Head BRIJITA PRAKASH LEAVING DSK Legal JOINING J Sagar Associates PRACTICE Real Estate LOCATION Bengaluru POSITION Partner ANJANA POTTI LEAVING J Sagar Associates JOINING Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co PRACTICE Infrastructure & Projects LOCATION Bengaluru POSITION Partner KIRTHI SRINIVAS LEAVING Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas JOINING AZB & Partners PRACTICE Antitrust LOCATION Mumbai POSITION Partner ROHIT TIWARI LEAVING Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas JOINING Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co PRACTICE Capital Markets LOCATION Mumbai POSITION Partner cedure for arbitration that can be completed in six months also helped solve the delay problem of the local courts. Crucially, for domestic arbitrations, Section 34 of the Act was amended to dispense with automatic stay of enforcement of arbitral awards. The 2019 Amendment helped strengthen the notion of confidentiality in arbitration proceedings and immunity for arbitrators. The market response has been positive towards the effort of Indian lawmakers on making India a pro-arbitration jurisdiction. The signals from the Indian judiciary have also been largely pro-arbitration with a few exceptions. For example, in 2022, MCIA’s caseload increased 20 percent from previous year. The institution also received 23 new matters, and 13 percent of those matters where were either one or both parties were international. ALB: Historically, foreign investors have looked at India as a challenging jurisdiction for arbitration, citing slow timelines, particularly in certain sectors, and uncertainty in award enforcement. What is the way forward to address investor concerns and what role will the ABI play under your leadership in this reformation? Banerji: The primary way to solve the issue of slow timelines is to introduce stringent procedural safeguards that will curb the delays in the local courts. ABI plans to advocate for and help implement stricter timeline procedures by seeking appropriate amendments to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, which will ensure cases are resolved expeditiously and on time. ABI also plans to advocate for legislative changes that ensure quicker enforcement of awards and a narrow scope of grounds for challenge, increasing certainty in the entire process. ABI will play a proactive role, in consolidating the opinion of arbitration practitioners and formulating recommendations to the Law Commission of India. Ultimately, ABI would act as a legitimate body that consolidates opinions and widens the role played by civil society in law-making. The efforts of ABI will mainly revolve around strengthening comprehensive law-making. Integration with technology will help improve the situation through features such as electronic filing, virtual hearing, electronic stamping, and AI-based case management platforms. ABI plans to introduce training and seminars for utilising this kind of technology to ensure practitioners are comfortable with technology, as this is a crucial skill clients seek in the market. ABI plans to meet and connect with several institutions throughout India to help standardise arbitration procedure, ensuring their lack of unpredictability regardless of the city where the arbitration is conducted.
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