New Delhi has opened its first arbitration centre in the Delhi High Court complex this month, modelled along the lines of London and Singapore arbitration centres. This follows on from a series of wider reforms being proposed in India to make it a more attractive jurisdiction for dispute resolution. The opening of the new centre also coincides with the opening of a new CIArb arbitration centre in New Delhi (see Legal update, CIArb opens New Delhi branch).

The new arbitration centre is aimed at reducing the number of pending arbitration cases in India as well as bringing more transparency and reliability to arbitration in India. In the process, the new centre should also reduce the cost and time of resolving disputes through arbitration, which are often inflated because of the foreign seats of arbitrations. The arbitration centre will be headed by retired judges, practising lawyers, engineers, architects and chartered accountants, allowing it to have a pool of arbitration experts and not those just from the legal community. It is hoped that this latest development will lend credibility to Indian arbitration. The real challenge will be to convince the ultimate users of arbitration, namely the corporates who currently arbitrate abroad, that they should resolve their arbitrations locally, using local arbitrators and local counsel. This is likely to be a bigger hurdle, given the deep rooted sentiments of some well known users and practitioners.