The Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act (1996) rules that any educated person can be work as an arbitrator, irrespective of the profession he or she is in. Which means your need to have some in-depth knowledge of legal aspects followed by the industry you chose to work as an arbitrator.
Currently India’s judicial system is facing a crisis of concluding trials in a timely manner. Given that time is of the essence in most commercial disputes, arbitration should have been the dispute-resolution mechanism of choice for commercial disputes in India. However, for a long time, arbitration in India suffered the fate of being treated as “soft litigation”, where hearings got adjourned in a casual manner without any difficulty, and proceedings could go on for years together.
For a country like India, with its burgeoning cases waiting to be a disposed and limited judicial reach, arbitration can be valuable. In fact, business houses, educational institutions and other organisations gain by having a trained arbitrator on the on their payroll, or at least by having a few of their existing employees trained in the arbitration domain, because arbitration could save them valuable time and expenses, which is otherwise lost, when disputes are put through courts. Successful candidates can also establish an international practice in arbitration.
Upcoming centres like Nani Palkhivala Arbitration Centre here does their part by providing on-ground training to the interested candidates
