February 28, 2026 : Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Saturday said that while India’s arbitration framework has made significant strides through legislative reforms and pro-arbitration court rulings, deeper structural challenges remain, particularly in building user trust and strengthening institutional capacity.
He was speaking in Ahmedabad after laying the foundation stone of the Gujarat High Court Arbitration Centre.
The CJI noted that amendments to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act have encouraged minimal judicial interference, introduced time-bound procedures and reinforced neutrality in the appointment of arbitrators. According to him, consistent judicial pronouncements have also bolstered party autonomy and resolved doctrinal ambiguities, contributing to the steady maturation of India’s arbitration regime.
At the same time, he pointed out that institutional arbitration in India continues to occupy a limited space. A large number of commercial disputes still proceed through ad hoc arbitration, and several high-value matters are referred to foreign arbitral seats. The central issue, he said, is not whether arbitration as a mechanism is viable, but whether Indian institutions inspire sufficient confidence to become the preferred forum for dispute resolution.
Trust, he stressed, is foundational. Confidence in arbitration depends on neutrality in appointments, procedural integrity and effective enforcement of awards. Such credibility, he observed, cannot be built merely through statutory provisions. It must be earned through consistent, transparent and demonstrably fair practices over time. Institutions, he suggested, must introspect whether they have fully earned that confidence from users.
On capacity, the CJI said the number of institutional arbitrations in India remains disproportionately low when compared with the volume of commercial disputes. Many parties continue to opt for ad hoc processes or conventional litigation because institutions have not adequately demonstrated their comparative advantage. For institutional arbitration to remain relevant, he said, efficient infrastructure, strong case-management systems and competent administrative support are essential.
He described professionalisation as the most consequential challenge facing the ecosystem. Arbitration, he said, is a specialised discipline that requires not just legal expertise, but also commercial awareness and effective case-management skills. India must invest in training arbitrators and building a structured pipeline of qualified professionals so that the growth of institutions does not outpace the quality of proceedings.
The CJI added that India’s arbitration standards must be benchmarked against leading global arbitral seats, particularly in light of parties’ expectations for faster and more reliable alternatives to traditional litigation.
The new centre will house 16 arbitration conference rooms, seven mediation rooms and an online dispute resolution system designed to handle both domestic and international matters. A two-day conference titled “Institutional Arbitration at Crossroads: Challenges and the Way Forward” is being held alongside the foundation ceremony, bringing together arbitrators, advocates and other stakeholders to deliberate on the future of institutional arbitration in India.
Addressing the gathering, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel highlighted the importance of institutional arbitration in a state with expanding industrial and technological sectors, and said such mechanisms would play a key role in strengthening commercial dispute resolution.
