Conduct of Arbitral Proceeding: Section 22 of Arbitration and Conciliation Act

Section 22 of Arbitration and Conciliation Act- Language

STATEMENT: (1) The parties are free to agree upon the language or languages to be used in the arbitral proceedings.

(2) Failing any agreement referred to in sub-section (1), the arbitral tribunal shall determine the language or languages to be used in the arbitral proceedings

(3) The agreement or determination, unless otherwise specified, shall apply to any written statement by a party, any hearing and any arbitral award, decision or other communication by the arbitral tribunal.

(4) The arbitral tribunal may order that any documentary evidence shall be accomplished by a translation into the language or languages agreed upon by the parties or determined by the arbitral tribunal.

PARTIES TO DECIDE:

The choice of deciding the venue should be left upon the parties to determine the language in which proceedings should be undertaken. The need and necessity for the provision seems to have arisen because of the parties hailing from different languages are spoken, as also because of the members constituting proceedings belong to different parts of the country.

The choice of the language or the languages in which the arbitral proceedings shall be conducted having been decided by the agreement between the parties, failing which by the arbitral tribunal shall, for all intents and purposes, be the language or languages in which the written statement shall be filed by a party. Any communication which may be sought to be placed on record of the arbitral tribunal, in the language or the languages other than those for which the decision had already been taken, may not succeed.

Related Articles:

• Section 18: Equal treatment of parties
• Section 19: Determination of rules of procedure
• Section 20: Place of arbitration
• Section 21: Commencement of Arbitral Proceedings
• Section 22: Language
• Section 23: Statement of claim and defence
• Section 24: Hearing and written proceedings
• Section 25: Default of a Party
• Section 26: Expert appointment by arbitral tribunal
• Section 27: Court assistance in taking evidence
• More notes on Arbitration and Conciliation Act
• More law notes

REFERENCES:

1. Markanda, P.C., Law relating to Arbitration and Concilation,8th Ed.(2012),Lexis Nexis, Butterworths & Wadhwa, Nagpur

2. B.P. Saraf and M. Jhunjhunwala, Law of Arbitration and Conciliation (2000), Snow White, Mumbai

3. Basu N.D., Law of Arbitration and Conciliation Law of India (2014),Universal Law Publishers, Delhi

Author Details: Vaibhav Goyal (BA LLB Student, Panjab University)