Paper Presentation | Special Challenges in Execution of Arbitral Awards in Public Private Partnerships

Dr. Srividhya Ragavan, Professor of Law and Director of India Programs at the Texas A&M University School of Law will be presenting her paper, “Special Challenges in Execution of Arbitral Awards in Public Private Partnerships”, at the National Law School Of India University (NLSIU). The paper can be found as an advance article in Volume 35(1) of the National Law School of India Review, here.

About the speaker 

Dr. Srividhya Ragavan, Professor of Law and Director of India Programs at the Texas A&M University School of Law. An alumna of the National Law School of India University, Prof. Ragavan also holds degrees from King’s College London and George Washington University School of Law. She specializes in intellectual property right, patents, trade, with her research highlighting her expertise in access to medication and health; intellectual property; and trade and development. She has published 6 books and over a 100 articles, book chapters and policy reports. She is on the editorial board of several interdisciplinary journals and has held visiting appointments in several universities across India including NLSIU, NALSAR and NLU Delhi.  She is an expert for the WIPO and the WTO, and has testified at the United States International Trade Commission as well as before the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

Abstract

“With around 47 million pending cases at various stages of Indian judiciary and one of the lowest levels of judges per million of population in the world, India’s arbitration regime presents a ray of hope for millions of Indians who face the prospect of justice being denied to them due to inordinate delays caused by a clogged judicial pipeline. The enactment of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 was presented as a viable alternative to resolve commercial disputes in a timely manner. This paper uses a case study to discuss how arbitration in India has not fulfilled the timeliness promise and in turn, has detrimentally affected trade and investments, making the system an inefficient alternative to the contentious and long drawn litigations.

The study of the DMRC dispute is distinguished because it involves a public-private partnership and is exceptional for two reasons. First, being the first public-private partnership project in metro rail infrastructure in the country, the extraordinary delay in execution of the arbitral award alone highlights the need to create a level-playing field when government is involved as a party. Second, the case showcases glaring loopholes in India’s existing arbitration regime which has allowed courts to unduly intrude and cause inordinate delays at every stage of the process, as a result of which, the amount of interest accumulated eventually outstripped the principal sum initially claimed by DMRC’s private partner in the project. For instance, it took ten months to constitute an arbitration panel, 68 hearings to pass an arbitral award which culminated in 4.5 years from the date of invocation of arbitration clause by DMRC, several layers of appeal, most of which favored one party, and the execution of the award is still pending!! The paper concludes by recommending plausible solutions to strengthen India’s arbitration laws, so that the DMRC fiasco does not get repeated in future at perilous costs borne by foreign and Indian private investors.”

How do I attend?

The paper presentation will held on Thursday, 7 December 2023, at the Old Academic Block, Room 105. This session can also be accessed live on the following link.