The Seat and the Venue of Arbitration under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996: The Controversy Still Prevails

Commercialization coupled with Globalization has changed the system as well as fashion of business transactions between the parties, where previously people were accustomed to dealing in domestic market that too with extreme caution, now they are eager and scrumptious to jump into the international markets, leading to large number of international business transactions. This in turn lead to rising number of disputes which may arise between people while carrying out trade, disputes like non-payment of price, escaping of excise duties, or dissatisfaction of contractual obligations due change in political policies or natural phenomena etcetera. Arbitration helps in resolving these disputes in relatively lesser time and cost as compared to litigation, though it has its own limitations. One such drawback of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 has been discussed here in this article. The article aims to study the controversy between the ‘seat’ and the ‘venue’ of arbitration under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 in a doctrinal manner with the aid of judicial interpretations on the subject .