ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION (AMENDMENT) BILL 2021

ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION (AMENDMENT) BILL 2021

Subject: Legislations

Context: The Parliament gave its nod to the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 with Rajya Sabha passing it. The Lok Sabha has already passed the bill last month.

Concept:

• The legislation seeks to amend the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The Act contains provisions to deal with domestic and international arbitration and defines the law for conducting conciliation proceedings.

The Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 provides for the following:

• to grant unconditional stay of enforcement of arbitral awards, where the underlying arbitration agreement, contracts or arbitral award is induced by fraud or corruption;
• to omit eighth Schedule of the act which laid down the qualifications, experience and norms for accreditation of arbitrators; and
• to specify by regulations the qualifications, experience and norms for accreditation of arbitrators and the said amendment is consequential in nature.