MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE
(Legislative Department)
New Delhi, the Dated- 1st January, 2016
The following Act of Parliament received the assent of the President on the 31st December, 2015, and is hereby published for general information:—
THE ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2015
NO. 3 OF 2016
[31st December, 2015.]
An Act to amend the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.
BE it enacted by Parliament in the Sixty-sixth Year of the Republic of India as follows:—
Short title and commencement.
1. (1) This Act may be called the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015.
(2) It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 23rd October, 2015.
Amendment of section 2.
2. In the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act), in section 2,—
(I) in sub-section (1),—
(A) for clause (e), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:— ‘(e) “Court” means—
(i) in the case of an arbitration other than international commercial arbitration, the principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction in a district, and includes the High Court in exercise of its ordinary original civil jurisdiction, having jurisdiction to decide the questions forming the subject-matter of the arbitration if the same had been the subject-matter of a suit, but does not include any Civil Court of a grade inferior to such principal Civil Court, or any Court of Small Causes;
(ii) in the case of international commercial arbitration, the High Court in exercise of its ordinary original civil jurisdiction, having jurisdiction to decide the questions forming the subject-matter of the arbitration if the same had been the subject-matter of a suit, and in other cases, a High Court having jurisdiction to hear appeals from decrees of courts subordinate to that High Court;’;
(B) in clause (f), in sub-clause (iii), the words “a company or” shall be omitted;
(II) in sub-section (2), the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:—
“Provided that subject to an agreement to the contrary, the provisions of sections 9, 27 and clause (a) of sub-section (1) and sub-section (3) of section 37 shall also apply to international commercial arbitration, even if the place of arbitration is outside India, and an arbitral award made or to be made in such place is enforceable and recognised under the provisions of Part II of this Act.”.
Download Full Text of Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015
Also Read- Amendments to Arbitration and Conciliation Bill, 2015
