The Consent Award in India

an Alternative Within an Alternative

Abstract

Multi-tier Arbitration, also called Hybrid-arbitration, in India has not been introduced in a formal manner. It has been practiced as an ad-hoc manner. What comes close to hinting the idea of hybrid-arbitration in India is s.30 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996. This section makes it possible for the arbitral tribunal to encourage parties to settle their disputes by referring their disputes to other ADR mechanisms such as conciliation and mediation. Thus, s.30 represents hybrid-arbitration mechanism and reflects the acknowledgment by the legislature of providing parties a choice for resolving disputes through a consensual mechanism even if parties have referred their disputes to Arbitration. At the same time, parties retain the option of proceeding solely with arbitration and not refer their disputes to any other mechanism. Thus, parties still have the final say in resolving their disputes at any time and place they desire. Arbitrators have also been given the discretion to raise objections to the settlement reached between the parties which they would have to state clearly. If, however, they accept the settlement then, as per the wishes of the parties they may terminate the arbitration proceedings or enforce the settlement by passing an award on the basis of that settlement. The author in this article has made an attempt to explain the very concept of Consent award, along with the mechanism of check and balance involved. The research methodology engaged by the author is explanatory, descriptive and analytical for the author explains the whole process involved in reaching a consent award, and tries to assess the potentiality of the consent award in resolving the dispute with the help of case-analysis method.