Delhi High Court Judge Supports Dedicated Arbitration Benches and Recognition of Emergency Arbitration in India
He suggested setting up of permanent bench of Gujarat High Court at GIFT City besides introducing emergency arbitrations with binding effect in law.
Justice Tejas Karia of Delhi High Court said that statutory inclusion of emergency arbitrations and having a permanent bench of Gujarat High Court at GIFT City will “turbocharge” the Indian arbitration ecosystem on Friday.
“The only thing I want to see is emergency arbitration being given statutory flavour under proposed section 9A and then secondly I would really love to see GIFT City have its own bench of High Court,” Justice Karia said at a panel discussion.
“Otherwise it goes to the default jurisdiction which is Gandhinagar district court,” he added.
“Thereafter my long vision is to see if we can create an International commercial court at GIFT City the kind of DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre) we have in Dubai or the SICC (Singapore International Commercial Court) we have Singapore,” he said.
Addressing various aspects of arbitration law, Justice Karia said even though there has been phenomenal development in arbitration law post-2015 amendments, certain procedural roadblocks such as Sections 9, 11, 34 and 37 continue to flood Indian courts with litigation.
He was a part of a panel discussion organised by Gujarat High Court Arbitration Centre (GHAC) as part of its event Arbitration Week 2026 at GIFT City in Gandhinagar. Other panellists include former Supreme Court Justice MR Shah, Gujarat AG Kamal Trivedi, Senior Advocates Mihir Thakore and Janak Dwarkadas. Senior Advocate Shalin Mehta moderated the panel discussion.
The discussion revolved around two subjects –
- The Post-2015 Amendment Era: Where do we stand?
- The New IBA Guidelines 20 24: Navigating Conflicts, Disclosure and Independence in Arbitration.
Justice Karia stated that there is an urgent need to incorporate emergency arbitrations in the statute.
“…if you talk about emergency arbitrations, the only way that it can work is that it has to be institutional arbitration,” Justice Karia said adding that if emergency arbitrations are made part of the statute, parties will be able to obtain interim relief within 14 days and it won’t put pressure on courts’ dockets.
He added that in his view, GIFT City should become India’s arbitration hub.
Speaking about the possibility of GIFT City emerging as an arbitration destination, Justice Karia urged for a permanent bench of Gujarat High Court in GIFT City.
On awards being set aside by courts, Justice Karia said judges need to adopt a light-touch approach in dealing with Section 34. However, the panel also discussed if Section 34 needed to be expanded to cure awards which have become defective.
He further said that there is a need to carve out specialised benches to deal with arbitration cases and more importantly training judges as well as re-training arbitrators who are judges.
“So when they sit as judges they have forgotten how to do arbitration. When they sit as an arbitrator they should unlearn and learn again how to do arbitration when they sit as an arbitrator,” Justice Karia said.
Mr Dwarkadas said part of the delay is because of the skewed ratio of judges to Indian population.
He suggested reducing the meaning of “court” under the Arbitration Act to mean only specialised tribunal for dealing with arbitration matters or dedicated division of a court.
Mr Trivedi urged law commission to ban adhoc arbitrations in India.
“Ad-hoc arbitration must go as a matter of rule. 85 percent of ad hoc award are sub-standard,” he said.
Mr Dwarkadas citing data from Delhi High Court said, “49.80 percent is a number of times that awards have been fully upheld. Which means 50 percent of the time awards have failed. Remember these are ad hoc arbitration awards. Any product or service which fails 50 percent of the time, would you call it a successful brand? No.
“It’s not successful. Please let us move to institutional arbitration,” he added.
Justice Shah said while parties have become habitual of seeking extension of time under Section 29A, because of Supreme Court decision on the matter, all extension of time applications are now heard by trial and district courts.
He suggested arbitration as a specialised subject should be taught by judicial academies to trial court judges.
“Let’s get the trial courts judges trained by judicial academies on arbitration,” he said.
Referring to security deposits demanded by courts from parties challenging awards, Justice Shah said the measure does not protect a claimant whose business went down during the prolonged litigation.
Mr Trivedi suggested clear cut time-bound limitations in the statute such as limiting filing of Section 34 petitions within 6 months and appeals under Section 37 within 3 months.
He further said undefined terms such as “public policy” forces courts to keep interpreting them.
Mr Thakore spoke about delay in execution of awards and said although courts have powers under Order 21 of Code of Civil Procedure to execute arbitration awards as decrees, it takes time.
He said powers to execute awards should be vested directly with Section 34 courts or the process under Schedule Two of Income Tax Act should be followed which fastens recovery.
Justice Shah said while the apex courts intervention should be minimal in arbitration matters and only to iron out procedural creases.
“We should not try to improve this Act by interpreting it beyond its scope. You cannot rewrite the Arbitration Act by interpreting and adding something which is not there,” he said.
On issue of neutrality of arbitrators under new IBA Guidelines 2024, Justice Shah said declaration by arbitrators under Section 12 have become “automatic”.
Mr Thakore told practising arbitrators to disclose if they have any hesitation.
“The mantra is disclose. Disclosure is better than non-disclosure. If you are not sure about something, disclose it,” he said.
Mr Dwarkadas concluded the discussion by stating that data shows 74.28 percent awards are set aside by courts due to composition of tribunal.
He stressed upon importance of disclosure at the outset to maintain enforceability of awards.
