Govt to bring amendments to Arbitration Act in Budget Session: Gowda

Guwahati: Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda on Tuesday said the Centre will introduce amendments to Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 in the coming budget session of Parliament to make the country investor-friendly. [caption id=“attachment_2077475” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Law Minister Sadananda Gowda.[/caption] The government will also move the National Litigation Policy to the cabinet and discuss it in the Budget session, he said, adding there were also plans to introduce commercial benches in high courts soon. “We are ready with the amendments to the Arbitration Act and we will bring it in the next session of Parliament. The aim of these amendments is to address disputes as quickly as possible,” Gowda told reporters in Guwahati. Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is trying to present India as an investor-friendly nation to the world and hence the laws should also be supporting this, he said. “There should be ease of doing business in India. Nobody is prepared to have an arbitration in India. The process gets delayed due to arbitration. We want to have a stipulated timeframe for this,” Gowda said. Speaking about the National Litigation Policy, the Minister said the government is ready with it and will bring it to the cabinet and then introduce it in the Budget Session of Parliament. “We want to address the inter-department disputes through this policy. Disputes between PSUs and between government and different PSUs will be considered in it,” he said. Gowda said the Centre is planning to introduce commercial benches in High Courts soon to hear cases related to financial disputes. He, however, did not give any time limit for introduction of the commercial benches. PTI