CJI SAYS INDIA CAN BECOME HUB FOR INT’L ARBITRATION

The Chief Justice of India, JS Khehar, on Saturday said that India’s potential to establish itself as a hub for international commercial arbitration is set to increase on an exponential scale as “more and more foreign investors are coming into India”.

CJI Khehar said India can establish itself as a hub for international commercial arbitration in Asia due to its legal system and governmentinitiativestowardsa zero interference policy.

“At the highest level of planning in the Indian government, efforts are ongoing that neither the government nor state machinery will have any interference with arbitration process,” he said adding, “Zero interferenceininternationalcommercial arbitration will give room for the foreign traders in India that the process here is neutral.”

Speaking at a two-day seminar ‘Engaging Asia Arbitration Summit’, Khehar said, “International commercial arbitration has become a preferred choice of businessmen for dispute resolution for the simple reason that it has a much lower cost.”

The foreign investment in India in 2015-16, was to the tune of $5.9 billion, he said.

Former law minister Salman Khurshid, while speaking at the same event, said though India was moving “exponentially forward” as far as arbitration is concerned, it needs an infusion of better technology to help push it further.

He said the equipment being used in India is not on par with that of established arbitration

Madhya’s Pradesh’s Tikamgarh municipality has converted a garbage truck into a hearse to ferry unclaimed bodies to crematorium, sparking outrage. The municipality’s action drew widespread condemnation after a video of a body being carried in the “modified” vehicle on Thursday went viral.

Tikamgarh’s chief municipal officer Vijay Shankar Trivedi, however, defended the civic body’s ingenuity saying since the vehicle was not being used for collecting trash, it was utilised as the civic body did not have a ‘Shav vahan.’ Incidentally, the district hospital has a hearse, but the municipality did not place any requisition for it.

“Had anyone approached us, we would have given the vehicle,” said Dr Varsha Rai, the chief medical and health officer of the hospital. Tikamgarh Kotwali police had found a body on a dry river bed at Patha village in Sagar. As identity of the deceased could not be established, the cops handed over the corpse to the municipality for the last rites. Congress, along with other social organisations, wil submit a memorandum to Sagar district collector demanding “action” against those who dis respected the dead.