Arbitration Section

Roll of Superintending Engineers heading the circle over the period (link-1).

This circle has started functioning from Shimla in June 1978 and was shifted to Solan w.e.f. 21-01-1980. The mandate of this circle is to resolve the disputes between the parties as Arbitrator appointed under contract clause providing arbitration (The Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996). In some of the contracts, SE Arbitration Circle Solan is also appointed as Dispute Review Expert. The circle has now been allowed to function as inquiry officer in departmental inquiries on case to case basis (link-2).

The tribunal has catered to almost 11 different departments of the state namely HP-IPH, HP-SEBL, HP Bus Stand Authority, HIMUDA, Agriculture department, Rural Development Department, MC Shimla, Himachal Pradesh University-Shimla, Krishi Visvavidalaya University-Palampur, Horticulture University-Nauni, Regional Engineering College-Hamirpur now NIT Hamirpur, HPSIDC-Shimla & HP  Tourism Development Corporation-Shimla. Since its inception, about 1189 number of arbitration cases have been decided(link-3), 940 cases have been terminated(link-4)

Lately, there has been changes in the law of arbitration & policy of the government with respect to arbitration under the government contracts:

  1. The arbitration clause has been deleted in the HP-PWD government contracts by way of policy notification dated: 26-5-2020(link-5).
  2. The government officer cannot be appointed as arbitrator under the amendment done in The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 by way of Act-3 of 2016, section-12 (w.e.f. 23-10-2015). However, there is exception that in case the parties agree to the appointment of government officer as arbitrator, then it can be under section-12 (5) by way of express agreement between parties.
  3. As per The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 the case has to be decided within the two years of its institution after amendment by ACT-33 of 2019(w.e.f. 30-8-2019).