Significantly small pool of women arbitrators to choose from: Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju

At a session of the recently conculded Delhi Arbitration Weekend (DAW) 2024, Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju of the Delhi High Court highlighted limited pool of women arbitrators.Justice Ganju highlighted how the participation of women in court rooms and in the legal profession has seen an upsurge in the recent years, especially in contrast to the time when she entered the practice.She added that while there has been progress, due to the fact that women in India are still the primary caregivers, they are constrained to take a hiatus from work at some point in their careers. The same is further aggravated by the fact that many women are not able to return to their careers, resulting in progressive loss of women from the profession or a “leaky pipeline”..The judge pointed out that a challenge to increasing representation of women in arbitration is the limited pool of women arbitrators. She highlighted that while appointing arbitrators in ad hoc arbitration in India, the judges are faced with a significantly small pool of women arbitrators to choose from..The Delhi High Court judge was speaking at a breakfast seminar on the topic Diversity in Arbitration organised by Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. in collaboration with ArbitralWomen as part of DAW 2024..Recalling a quote of Benjamin Franklin - “If we all think alike, no one is thinking” - Justice Ganju emphasised on the importance of having women in international arbitration for improving the outcome of the arbitral processes through diversity of opinion and perspective. She stressed upon working towards retaining women in the long run and achieving reappointment of women as arbitrators.Justice Ganju summed by emphasizing on the need for upscaling skills and training women arbitrators and experts for enhancing their appointments in international arbitration..Other panelists at the session included SAM Managing Partner Pallavi Shroff Secretary General and Registrar of the Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration (MCIA) Neeti Sachdeva, and Head of Litigation and Compliance Officer, Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel, India Ashok Kumar. The session was moderated by SAM Partner Smarika Singh.Founding President of ArbitralWomen Louise Barrington delivered the opening address..Singh flagged the themes for the session, including unconscious bias as an obstacle to women; the business case for greater involvement of women in international arbitration; and what is being done currently to increase the proportion of women.Sachdeva underlined the role of arbitral institutions in enhancing inclusion of women as arbitrators and experts, given that ensuring the same in ad hoc arbitrations can be a challenge. She added that women also need to celebrate their achievements and progress, as only then would they garner confidence from clients and parties to nominate them as arbitrators.Shroff stressed upon the need for corporates, law firms, arbitral institutions, clients and all stakeholders to adopt a collective approach for enhancing inclusion of women in international arbitration. She added that a strong profile backed with specialized training and courses for women arbitrators is required for ensuring that the arbitral awards passed are well-reasoned and not susceptible to challenges before courts.Kumar pointed out that corporates have gradually become more progressive and open to the idea of women arbitrators or women as arguing/briefing counsel. He suggested that while drafting arbitral clauses and agreements, counsel can mention that parties could prefer to have a woman arbitrator in the arbitral tribunal, whilst not making it mandatory.The panelists also unanimously advocated for the need to enhance awareness and encourage discourse amongst different stakeholders for increased involvement of women.