The Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration
Global | Video | September 2018 | 02:28
Video Details
| Sherina Petit | Welcome to our offices Neeti and thank you very much for taking the time to come here today. The MCIA was launched in 2016, can you tell me a little bit about it please? |
| Neeti Sachdeva | Thank you Sherina and thank you for having me here. MCIA is a first of its kind arbitral institution with an international flavour to be launched in India. It enjoys the support of the business and the legal community, not only from within India but overseas as well, with of course the support of the Government of Maharashtra but we are structured as a not for profit trust and not a government entity. |
| Sherina Petit | Can you tell me some of achievements that the MCIA has had to date? |
| Neeti Sachdeva | I would say one of the biggest achievements for MCIA has been that we launched the arbitration facilities for the first time in India and since our launch, within less than two years, we have done about 250 arbitrations at our premises. Other than that, the uptake of the rules of arbitration has been, I would say, overwhelming as well. The Supreme Court of India for the first time ever referred an appointment of an arbitrator to an institution which was MCIA. The Bombay High Court converted an ad hoc arbitration into an institution. And very recently, MCIA also got its first matter to be administered under a contract which had an MCIA clause. |
| Sherina Petit | The arbitration landscape in India has gone through a sea-change, can you tell me a little bit about that? |
| Neeti Sachdeva | India adopted the 1996 Arbitration Act just like the UK did and it took us about 17 years to amend that Act which was in 2015 and we have further amendments lined up this year itself. So that definitely talks about the intent of the legislation, the government, that they need to promote India as a hub for international arbitration. All these amendments, including the timelines, including the restricting of the public policy, definitely point to the idea that we need to promote institutional arbitration and we need to promote India as the place to do arbitrations. |
| Sherina Petit | Thank you so much Neeti for joining us here today and safe travels back home. |
The Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration
Neeti Sachdeva, Secretary-General and Registrar of MCIA, and Sherina Petit, Partner and Head of Norton Rose Fulbright’s India Practice, discuss the achievements of MCIA since its launch in 2016 and other recent arbitration developments in India.