India: Constitutional & Administrative Law

This article examines the need for statutory reservation of seats for women in Bar Councils in India. It analyses the current under-representation of women in legal governance structures, the constitutional and policy justifications for affirmative action, and the potential benefits of greater gender diversity for the legal profession and the justice delivery system.

The appeal arose from an arbitral dispute in which the appellant challenged an order of the Arbitral Tribunal rejecting an objection under Section 16 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The appellant contended that various agreements executed between the parties were insufficiently stamped and, being in the nature of “conveyance”, ought to have been impounded before arbitration could proceed.

In the world of arbitration, few distinctions are as doctrinally significant, yet as frequently misunderstood, as the difference between the “seat” and the “venue” of arbitration.