SS Nijjar

The Supreme Court has selected former Australian high court judge Michael Kirby to chair over the arbitration between Reliance Industries and the Centre over KG Basin gas production, after five months ago Justice SS Nijjar, had already selected one and then another Australian ex-judge to preside after the first turned out to have been preferred by Reliance.

Justice JS Khehar has now confirmed Kirby, who will arbitrate alongside ex-Chief Justice of India’s (CJI) SP Bharucha and VN Khare - respectively Reliance and ministry nominees - reported the Times of India.

The Supreme Court of India has appointed ex Australian high court judge Michael Hudson McHugh to preside over the $1.8bn arbitration between the government and Reliance Industries (RIL) relating to the KG basin.

Supreme Court Justice SS Nijjar had originally picked ex-Australian Supreme Court judge James Spigelman in late March but several days later withdrew his suggestion because Spigelman was on a list of preferred arbitrators of Reliance.

Reliance counsel Harish Salve had requested a foreign arbitrator, while the oil ministry was rooting for an Indian head arbitrator. [PTI] [2 April: SC U-turns]

Foreign lawyers should be allowed to work on arbitrations in India to make domestic arbitration more attractive and to unburden the courts said Supreme Court justices SS Nijjar and PC Ghose and retired judge AK Ganguly, reported Kolkata paper The Telegraph.

Nijjar said at the seminar by the Indian Council of Arbitration that “we need to open up. Let’s come up with a comprehensive act (and become) an arbitration-friendly nation and judiciary”, adding that the process must be liberalised and foreign lawyers should be allowed to participate.

Ganguly added “It is natural that foreign companies will depend on foreign lawyers. If we want the arbitration process to become popular in India, we need to provide a level playing field to foreign lawyers. This will improve the legal system in India.”

Foreign lawyers are currently banned from practising in Indian courts or running offices here.

Supreme Court Justice SS Nijjar, who on Monday appointed a former Australian Supreme Court judge as the chief of three arbitrators to settle a $1.8bn dispute between Reliance Industries and the government, has withdrawn the suggestion.

The problem, said Nijjar, agreeing with objections from the government, was that James Spigelman's name was on a list of preferred arbitrators that had been prepared by Reliance, holding: "Although two lists have been duly supplied by the learned counsel for the parties, I am of the opinion, in the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case, it would be appropriate if an individual not named by any of the parties is appointed as the third arbitrator. I have discretely conducted a survey to find a suitable third arbitrator who is not a national of any of the parties involved in the dispute." [PTI] [Original appointment of 31 March]