The apex court agreed to withdraw Spigelman following contention from Indian government about his name being mentioned in the list proposed by RIL as an independent arbitrator earlier
The Supreme Court on Wednesday withdrew the name of Australian James Spigelman, former Chief Justice and LG of New South Wales, who was appointed by it as third arbitrator to resolve the dispute between Indian government and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on KG basin.
Justice SS Nijjar, who had appointed Spigelman, agreed to withdraw his name after the Centre contended that the name of ex-Chief Justice of New South Wales was mentioned in the list of names proposed by the Reliance group for appointment as an independent arbitrator.
The apex court had on 31st March named Spigelman as the third arbitrator who shall act as the Chairman of the Arbitral Tribunal, whose two other members are former Chief Justices of India, SP Bharucha and VN Khare.
While Mukesh Ambani-led RIL has nominated former Justice Bharucha as its arbitrator, the Centre chose Justice Khare as its nominee.
Justice Nijjar had said that both the Centre and RIL provided the list of eminent foreign arbitrators but he preferred to do his own survey for maintaining neutrality and chose the name of Justice Spigelman.
“Although two lists have been duly supplied by the learned counsel for the parties, I am of the opinion, in the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case, it would be appropriate if an individual not named by any of the parties is appointed as the third arbitrator. I have discretely conducted a survey to find a suitable third arbitrator who is not a national of any of the parties involved in the dispute,” he had said.
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