Bangalore Legal Forum
Panel Discussion on Modification of Arbitral Awards
About BLF
Bangalore Legal Forum is a monthly series of Panel Discussions hosted at the Bangalore International Centre by various law schools across the Bengaluru Metropolitan Area. They include:
1. Manipal Law School, Manipal University.
2. National Law School of India University (via the Legal Services Clinic).
3. St. Joseph's College of Law.
4. School of Law, Christ University.
The panel discussions are geared toward fostering legal knowledge sharing and collaboration between Bangalore's legal education institutions and industry, improving public legal awareness and access to thoughtful legal discourse, and creating a collaborative legal community across the city.
The inaugural session was a panel discussion on "Free Speech and Internet Regulation in India" with Dr. Sarayu Natarajan, Mr. Pranesh Prakash, Mr. Prateek Waghre and Mr. Sachin S. held on 23 April 2025.
Glimpses of Past Events
Session #2
The Second Bangalore Legal Forum Panel Discussion was held on May 23, 2025 at the Bangalore International Centre on “To Modify or Not to Modify: The Conundrum of Gayatri Balasamy”. The session focused on the Supreme Court's landmark judgement limiting the scope of court interference under sections 34 and 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act.
The Panelists included:
1. Adv. Pramod Nair, Senior Advocate (Panelist);
2. Dr. Jaya Vasudevan, Professor of Law, Manipal University (Panelist);
3. Anind Thomas, Partner, AZB and Partners (Panelist);
4. Vikas Mahendra, Partner, Keystone Partners (Moderator).
The discussion was structured around two parts:
Part I: The Propriety of Judicial Modification of Arbitral Awards
This segment explored the recent Gayatri Balasamy decision, particularly the use of Article 142 in private law disputes. This part followed a traditional for-and-against format, with each panelist expressing their views.
Part II: Arbitration as a Tool of Access to Justice
This was a shorter roundtable discussion on India’s policy push to become a pro-arbitration jurisdiction, leveraging arbitration and ADR mechanisms for legal aid and access to justice; ethical and practical implications of third-party funding in pro bono or low-resource arbitration contexts, etc.
