Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta recently expressed his views on challenges in Arbitration and said that the system of allowing litigants to choose their arbitrators has created serious concerns regarding integrity in arbitration, and that parliament has to step in and address the issue. Explaining why confidence in arbitration has eroded, he said that it has become possible to identify the law firm that has engaged an arbitrator simply by looking at the arbitrator’s name. Those who are practicing in the field of arbitration tell me that from the name of certain arbitrators, you can find out the firm which must have engaged him and the litigant which must be the client of that firm. 

He suggested that a possible check would be to bring in a law making it mandatory for all arbitral awards to be published on a single platform. 

The Solicitor General was speaking at a two-day conference on arbitration law organised by the Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad on September 21. He began by highlighting the lack of any serious empirical study on whether stakeholders were satisfied with arbitration in India. He referred to the Central government’s 2020 policy decision as per which government contracts above 10 crore would not include arbitration clauses. He reminded the audience that he had earlier told a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court that government bodies do not enjoy a level playing field against private parties in arbitration. 

On technology, Mehta raised concerns about the growing use of artificial intelligence in arbitration. Referring to foreign cases where ChatGPT had allegedly been used to draft awards, he said this undermined the requirement of a reasoned award.
 

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