Neutral, independent, non-profit: ILS, Pune Law College’s Centre for Arbitration & Mediation opens in Jan 2020

The Indian Law Society (ILS) Pune, on January 1, 2020, will host a Centre for Arbitration and Mediation on the college campus, a “private arbitration centre” to hear and resolve “ad-hoc arbitration” and “institutional arbitration, both domestic as well as international”, and also, “commercial arbitrations”.

The ILS Centre for Arbitration and Mediation (ILSCA) is being defined by its director, Prof Sathya Narayan, as a “neutral, independent, non-profit organisation, which will facilitate the impartial administration of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) proceedings”.

“ILSCA services will be affordable for the public and they can come here to resolve their disputes,” said ILS Law college principal, Vaijayanti Joshi.

ILSCA began its conceptualisation, planning and infrastructural work in December 2016, headed by the governing council of the Indian Law Society.

“There is a movement amongst legal communities all over the world and India is no exception – to encourage the culture of institutional arbitration, which will go a long way to redress the institutional and systemic discontent that has seriously affected the growth of arbitration,” Prof Sathya Narayan said.

“Institutional arbitration is one in which a specialised institution, intervenes and assumes the functions of aiding and administering the arbitral process, to resolve the disputes between the parties according to the rules of such an institution. Such institutions also provide qualified arbitrators, domain experts, empaneled with the institution,” Prof Narayan added. 

Prof Narayan also claims that ILSCA will be is a first-of-its-kind arbitral institution in India attached to an educational institution, in this case, the ILS Law college.

“Our law students will have the opportunity to learn law related to arbitration, mediation and negotiation through theory as well as in practice. Another important objective of ILSCA is to provide training in ADR methods and other allied subjects on arbitration to the students of law. Students who intend to be arbitrators and mediators can take the benefit of the training programmes which are planned for the said purpose.” she added. 

ILS college principal, Vaijayanti Joshi said, “This arbitration centre is a new endeavor of ILS and the main thrust would be to support the legal education, as arbitration is a subject. For commercial organisations, arbitrations are generally done and as far as mediation is concerned, it happens right from family disputes to in-commercial and non-commercial disputes.”

“Currently we are experiencing the ill-effects of long-pending trials. If we can curtail that delay and do justice in a time-bound manner I think that will go a long way so far as the common people are concerned,” she addded.

Facilities available at ILSCA 

- ILSCA is situated in a separate designated building which has six rooms, including an arbitrator’s lounge and a business centre

- ILSCA will undertake all necessary organisational services to disputant parties, like settling fees of arbitrators and mediators; arranging dates for conferences and meetings between arbitrators and the parties and their counsel 

- ILSCA will also acting like a registry or a depository of pleadings, documents and correspondence

- ILSCA proposes to provide training through workshops, training programmes and courses to members of the legal fraternity and students of law who have an interest in arbitration and mediation, in collaboration with other professional institutes