Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) have constituted a ‘One-man High Level Committee to examine the Arbitration System on the Indian Railways’ under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Justice Bhuvaneswar Prasad, Judge (Retd.), High Court, Patna with effect from 16.11.2004. The tenure of the High Level Committee is for a period of one year. The Committee shall examine the following: -
1. Study the reasons for growing number of arbitration cases relating to Railways in various fora including Departmental Arbitration Tribunal, subordinate Courts, High Courts and the Supreme Court.
2. Suggest ways and means to reduce the number of arbitration cases, including changes necessary in the extant contractual provisions.
3. With a view to minimize delay in settling arbitration cases, to suggest most appropriate alternative dispute resolution mechanism.
4. Suggest ways and means to attract the best legal Counsels to work for the Railways to deal with the arbitration cases effectively.
5. Suggest in-house arbitration settling mechanism.
6. Advise possibilities of use of International Centre for Alternative Disputes Resolution (ICADR) in cases where Railway is a party; and
7. Any other appropriate means or measures, which the Committee feels, may result in more effective handling of arbitration cases.
The above information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri R. Velu in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.
HB:BKS:CKB