Page 1 of 7 ON-LINE ARBITRATION (Indian ... - Luthra & Luthra

Since arbitration proceedings are meant to be confidential in nature, theinfrastructure that is agreed to be used by the parties should not onlyprovide confidentiality of data but should also be reliable.Arbitral ProceedingsMoving on to the second part, i.e. the arbitral proceedings which arevirtual in nature, it is seen that the procedure which would be adopted bythe parties would already have been spelt out in the agreement or theInstitutional rules followed by the parties. In addition, the Statement ofClaim and defense etc. which need to be sent by transmitting the physicalcopies can be transmitted in electronic form. They can be sent throughemails by attaching PDF files and in addition, signed copies can be latersent though courier. Again, Section 4 and 5 of the Information TechnologyAct, read with Section 65B of the Evidence Act come to the aid of theparties. Such pleadings can be transmitted in electronic form withoutlosing recognition of law.It may however be added that in the conduct of proceedings, there could bedifficulties such as link failure, system failure, electricity failure etc.which need to be taken care of in the agreement or the Institutional rulesso that either a back-up or an alternate provision is made andinformation/ data fed in the system can be retrieved.ICC has taken a lead and framed certain Standards for On-lineArbitration. Some of them are:the rules for giving file names with a unique name/identifier foreach electronic document.o To identify the originator,o Class of documento Place of arbitrationThis file naming system shall be used throughout the arbitration forall electronic documents.Page 3 of 7