``Creation of a group of full-time persons committed to arbitration will lead to expeditious disposal of cases because disputes can be heard on a day-to-day basis and from ten in the morning to 4.30 in the evening,'' senior advocate Kapil Sibal said.

He was addressing a conference on ``New arbitration law and challenges before the legal community'' jointly organised by Indian Council of Arbitration (ICA) and Delhi High Bar Association here last evening.

Sibal said as of now, arbitration is taken as a spare time job by lawyers and they make themselves available for arbitration matters only after four in the evening when work comes to an end in other courts.

Stressing the need for minimisation of high cost of arbitration, SC judge Justice B N Kirpal suggested that services of retired SC and HC judges should be availed bygovernment.

He said government should continue to provide salaries and other benefits to retired SC and HC judges so that they were readily available for arbitration matters whenever needed.

Justice Kirpal said by availing services of retired judges the cost of arbitration could be substantially reduced because heavy cost incurred as fee to ad hoc arbitrators can be avoided by the parties engaged in dispute.

Emphasising the need for creation of a level playing field between companies belonging to developing countries and multinationals, senior advocate Arun Jaitly said there should be a separate low fee slab for smaller companies in the international court of arbitration.

ICA has, recently, written to International Court of Arbitration of International Chamber of Commerce requesting them to create a separate slab of arbitration fee to be charged from parties belonging to developing countries, ICA executive director G K Kwatra said.

He said as an institution, ICA will support creation of anarbitration bar in India which Kwatra described as need of the hour.

ICA president G P Goenka said India will be hosting the next conference of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration in the year 2000 at New Delhi.

Among others who addressed the conference included senior advocate R K Anand, SC judge Justice R C Lahoti, Delhi HC judge Justice Manmohan Sarin and Delhi HC Bar Association president Amerjit Singh Chandiok.