Under the patronage of Chief Justice, High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, (Patron-in-Chief, J&K Judicial Academy), N. Kotiswar Singh and able guidance of Justice Sanjeev Kumar, Chairperson, Governing Committee for J&K Judicial Academy and Justice Javed Iqbal Wani, Justice Rahul Bharti, and Justice Moksha Kazmi, members of Governing Committee, J&K Judicial Academy organized a one-day Refresher Training Programme on “Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996; Law, Practice and Procedure” for District & Sessions Judges and Sub-Judges of Jammu Province at Judicial Academy, Janipur, Jammu.
The training programme was inaugurated by the Chief Justice in the presence of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Manish Mehrotra, Senior Advocate, High Court of Lucknow who was the resource person for the training programme.
The training programme was conducted by Y P Bourney, Director, J&K Judicial Academy.
Chief Justice, in his inaugural address, emphasised that the ADR mechanism offers an efficient, quick and cost-effective alternative to the conventional adjudicatory system which is time time-consuming and very costly affair in present times due to huge docket explosion and backlog of pending cases before the courts.
Highlighting the importance of the subject, the Chief Justice observed that under the new regime, a clear timeline was given for the adjudication of disputes with minimal scope for the intervention of courts to ensure that litigants don’t get stuck in the legal hurdles. He expressed satisfaction over the growing trend and popularity of arbitration as an alternate dispute resolution mechanism, especially in dealing with commercial disputes and the encouraging results thereof. He further emphasised the need to give effect to the statute in the true spirit of and to popularise the other methods of alternate dispute resolution to minimise the backlog.
Justice Sanjeev Kumar, in his special remarks, highlighted the salutary provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 and subsequent amendments therein. He also highlighted that arbitration, as an alternate mode of dispute resolution in a congenial atmosphere, was prevalent in our country for centuries and a viable medium of out-of-court dispute resolution much before coming into force of the codified law.
The director, of J&K Judicial Academy presented the welcome address and gave an overview of the programme. He described arbitration and conciliation as the way forward for the timely resolution of disputes. He emphasized that it is imperative to have a clear understanding of the provisions of law coupled with firm resolve to achieve the desired results
In the first technical sessions, Manish Mehrotra deliberated upon the historical background, aims and objects and discussed the basic provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act threadbare. He also underpinned the scope of interim injunctions and relief u/s 9 of the Act and shared several important rulings on the subject. He referred to the Arbitration agreement in the light of the legal provisions and discussed the scope of reference to arbitration.
The resource person deliberated on the application and effect of legal proceedings on Arbitration. In the second technical session, the scope to challenge the award u/s 34 and the extent of court interference in arbitral awards was discussed in detail along with the provisions of section 36 of the Act. The resource person also emphasised the need for expeditious disposal of matters relating to Arbitration proceedings and also the common issues and redress thereof confronted during the arbitral proceedings.
Both the sessions were essentially interactive and the participants took keen interest and made full use of the opportunity to deliberate and discuss various aspects of the subject topic by raising queries which were addressed satisfactorily by the resource person.
