Regulating India’s Arbitral Institutions: Assessing the Proposed Section 12A’s Unprecedented Approach

Introduction   In 2024, an Expert Committee on Arbitration, released a Report recommending reforms to the Arbitration andConciliation Act, 1996 [“the Act”]. The Report proposed ambitious amendments:  resolving persistent judicial controversies, such as the Post NN Global-III debate, by suggesting to allow tribunals to proceed on unstamped agreements with deferred stamp duty payment; addressing statutory gaps by proposing provisions on emergency arbitration and third-party funding. Further, it also proposed bold structural reforms, including scrapping Section 11A and the Fourth Schedule’s arbitrator fee […]