Justice Rajesh Bindal warns that rising infrastructure disputes demand expert-led, faster arbitration systems. He calls for stronger institutions, better contracts, and tech-ready dispute resolution to prevent project delays.
Supreme Court judge Justice Rajesh Bindal has said that India urgently needs stronger arbitral institutions because the country’s fast-growing infrastructure sector depends on quick, expert-driven dispute resolution.
He was speaking at the 5th Biennial International Conference on Construction Law and Arbitration organised by the Society of Construction Law in New Delhi.
ALSO READ: “Lack of Arbitration Data Hinders Policy Making”: Justice Rajesh Bindal
Justice Bindal explained that construction law has become a very specialised field, especially because India is expanding rapidly in areas like power, roads, metro, ports and dams. With this growth, he said the number of disputes has also naturally risen.
According to him,
“Activity is increasing, so percentage of disputes will go up — some genuine, some creative. We should solve them at each stage, instead of taking the entire dispute to the end and stalling the project.”
Justice Bindal supported the use of institutional arbitration for construction disputes. He said this system can help fix current problems like high costs and long delays because it ensures proper technical experts, better record-keeping and structured procedures.
He also highlighted that the biggest way to prevent disputes is better contract drafting. He said,
“The best form of agreement is where all relevant laws and terms are incorporated in a single document, avoiding overlaps and pathological clauses.”
Justice Bindal also warned that the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has created serious challenges in arbitration and litigation. He pointed out that AI tools can produce fake documents, non-existent case laws, and may also pose confidentiality risks if parties use open platforms.
At the same event, Attorney General R Venkataramani said that India needs a special law dedicated only to the construction sector because the current legal framework is scattered and inconsistent.
He believed that law schools should help develop future experts and stronger regulatory systems for construction law.
Delhi High Court judge Justice Tejas Karia also said that India’s infrastructure sector is changing very fast and is becoming more complex, which means the country needs better and more specialised systems for dispute resolution.
He said,
“The future of construction disputes is clear. It will be faster, more data driven and more technology supported. It will be less adversarial and more collaborative. It will rely on early resolution structures and enforcement. If we build a dispute resolution system that is clear, predictable, economically enabled and globally trusted, we can position India as a hub for infrastructure arbitration.”
Lalit Bhasin, president of the Society of Indian Law Firms, also spoke at the conference. He said the current legal system is struggling to resolve construction disputes.
According to him, litigation “has virtually failed” and arbitration has also not delivered because
“we do not have good and strong arbitral institutions that would inspire confidence among the disputing parties.”
He said India should return to its traditional culture of cooperative conflict resolution and added,
“The only way out appears to be settling disputes within the arbitration framework, a pre-stage of consensual resolution.”
Click Here to Read More On IndiGo
