Niveditha R, Institute of Law, Nirma University
The article enunciates on the problems that arbitrators face in collecting evidence. A comparison between the rules relating to evidence in the domestic arena and the international community has also been discussed upon.
INTRODUCTION
Arbitration is a dispute resolution method wherein a dispute is submitted with the agreement between the parties between whom there is a dispute. Such submission is made to one or more arbitrators whose decision on the dispute is binding. The parties choose for a private dispute resolution method over a court proceeding1. It can be said without any ambiguity that evidence is a significant part of any dispute resolution method and holds equal importance in the method of arbitration as well2. Every arbitrator must know about the law that is governing the evidence, about the rules depending on lex loci arbitri and its background.3 Section 19 of the Indian Arbitration & Conciliation Act 4 expressly states that the tribunal will not be bound by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 or the Indian Evidence Act1 1872. This is a hindrance to the conduct of fair admissibility of evidence and a just proceeding. Despite the embargo in Section 19 of the Act, the practice of arbitration in India has mostly been to conduct a trial in an arbitration proceeding5. This article is an introduction to the problems of evidence on Indian arbitration and International arbitration. Arbitration is a more preferred dispute resolution method because of the freedom and flexibility it offers to the parties. However, the parties are still bound by the principles of fairness and equality. This should be kept in mind while choosing the rules of arbitration and the means of evidence collection in the proceedings6.
