The Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, Justice Gita Mittal, has nominated three puisne judges of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir to be part of the Arbitration Committee of the Jammu and Kashmir International Arbitration Centre.

The nominated judges for the Arbitration Committee include Justices Sindhu Sharma, Rajnesh Oswal and Javed Iqbal Wani of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

Further, three arbitration experts have been nominated to form the committee i.e. Senior Advocate Gaurav Pachnanda; Abhinav Bushan, Regional Director for South Asia of ICC Arbitration and ADR, ICC International Court of Arbitration, Singapore and Advocate Moazzam Khan, Head of Global Litigation at Nishith Desai Associates.

The nomination was exercised under Rule 3.1 (a) and (d) of the Jammu and Kashmir International Arbitration Centre (Internal Management Rules) 2020.

As per the Jammu and Kashmir International Arbitration Centre (Internal Management) Rules,2020, the Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir is the Patron-in-Chief of the Jammu & Kashmir International Arbitration Centre (JKIAC).

The High Court had recently accorded its approval for setting up High Court annexed Arbitration Centres at Srinagar and Jammu called as “The Jammu and Kashmir International Arbitration Centre (JKIAC). To ensure that constitution of such Centres is smooth and effective, the High Court had also framed “The Jammu and Kashmir International Arbitration Centre (JKIAC) (International Management) Rules, 2020”.

The setting up of the Jammu and Kashmir International Arbitration Centre is expected to go a long way in achieving the objective behind enactment of Section 89 Civil Procedure Code. It is meant to ensure that arbitration proceedings remain inexpensive and are carried out within the shortest possible time.

Court annexed Arbitration Centres are already functioning at Delhi, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Chennai and Cuttack.

Arbitration in India is governed by the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 2016. Every agreement has a dispute redress clause, which lays down ways in which a dispute can be resolved.

Usually, business houses prefer going to an arbitration centre before taking the legal route, as it saves time.

An arbitration is different from court litigation. It is a private negotiation between lawyers representing the disputing parties. When negotiations reach a stage where a referee, judge or some kind of neutral decision-maker is required, the arbitration panel gives a verdict. These panels are typically made up of international corporate law experts and senior executives with impeccable credentials.

Pertinently, this is the first International Arbitration Centre in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The first International Arbitration Centre in India was set up by the Maharashtra government in Mumbai in October 2016.