It has been more than two months
since the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi declared a national lockdown to
take care of the situation of COVID-19. The
cases are increasing daily and our government is dealing with it. In this
pandemic, not only India but every country in the world is managing on how to
deal with the arbitration cases. Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanism is no
exception in the legal system of India which has also been affected
unfavourably. In this article, we will discuss the various outcomes which can be
seen after the pandemic regarding
Arbitration.
The Supreme Court of
India passed an order on 23rd March 2020, regarding the time period of
limitation under various acts regarding COVID19. In this pandemic, all the
cases of arbitration are handled online through video conferencing. Due to
COVID19, there is no physical meeting for settling the disputes. Nowadays,
people are using technology to settle their disputes. Urgent cases are given
utmost priority in this complete lockdown. Parties can apply through e-mail and
other digital sources keeping in mind about social distancing. The Arbitration Tribunal is giving
full assistance to the parties, from filing
their pleading via email to their dispute solving via video conferencing. All
these digital sources are taking less time than usual, no physical contact is
required for solving these disputes when dealings are made digitally. The biggest benefit of the digital way of resolving
disputes between the parties is that it
promotes social distancing and international parties do not have to travel
around the world to resolve the dispute. Though these digital platforms have
their own pros. and cons, the major con of
using digital platforms is whether the privacy of the parties has been
maintained or not. Recently, a case National Bank of Kazakhstan v Bank of New
York Mellon and Ors[1],
was streamed live on YouTube giving all access to the private information of
the parties. This case was represented in an English Court. Here, Arbitration
loses an advantage which was giving privacy to the parties. All the files and
reports are shared virtually, so there is a constant fear of data leakage.
Another disadvantage of using digital platforms is that in some cases the
arbitrator cannot represent himself that good digitally. The reflexes, instinct
judgment cannot be shown digitally. A person can be nervous while talking on
video conferencing. This nervousness can affect a person’s case. The
issue of the internet, knowledge about computers can also be a con. We can see
changes going from paper to the internet. Everything has its own advantages and
disadvantages. It is society’s choice whether they have to take any good from
this Online Dispute Resolution. There are three mediums for resolving a
dispute using technology which is Al Dispute Resolution, Online Courts and
Online or Electric mediation and arbitration. The technology has saved us a
huge amount of time. The courts have adopted the online technology to save the
time of parties and themselves. Online Dispute Resolution has taken out the
hurdle of geographical location, lack of jurisdiction and transportability. In
Online Dispute Resolution, there is no question of jurisdiction as anyone can
connect to the internet from anywhere, so neither of the parties have to leave
their town for Dispute Resolution.
From these things we can
only conclude that Online Dispute Resolution can be a good thing for society.
Arbitration is a method that saves time and cost of legal litigations, but in
Online Dispute Resolution, the parties can save time, cost of legal
litigations, and also travel expenses.
From anywhere in the world, through video conferencing and other digital
methods people can resolve their disputes. Though the big question is about
privacy. Will the government make any
online security system where the proceeding can be stored privately
and securely? This is the biggest step
our government has to take to resolve the arbitrations online. This is one
thought about the situation of Arbitration after the pandemic, or this is just
a one time measure to resolve the disputes between the parties in this
pandemic. Will the government use these digital sources as
an all-time measure to resolve the issues even after the pandemic or it will
be back to its original paper pen method to resolve
the disputes is a question for the future.
[1] Claim No
FL-2018-000007 - In the High Court of Justice - Business and Property Courts of
England and Wales
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