State the reason and purpose of Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015 passed by the Parliament.

With the passage of time, some difficulties in the applicability of Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (Principal Act) have been noticed. Interpretation of the provisions of the Act by Court in some cases have resulted in delay in disposal of arbitration proceeding and increase the interference of the courts in arbitration matters, which tend to defeat the object of the Act. With a view to overcome the difficulties, Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015 (the amendment Act) was passed by the Parliament. The amendment Act facilitate and encourage Alternative Dispute Mechanism, especially arbitration for settlement of disputes in a more user-friendly, cost effective and expeditious disposal of cases, since India is committed to improve its legal framework to obviate in disposal of cases. The purpose of the amendment act is as under: to amend the definition of "Court" to provide that in the case of international commercial arbitrations, the Court should be the High Court; to ensure that an Indian Court can exercise jurisdiction to grant interim measures, etc., even where the seat of the arbitration is outside India; an application for appointment of an arbitrator shall be disposed of by the High Court or Supreme Court, as the case may be, as expeditiously as possible and an endeavour should be made to dispose of the matter within a period of sixty days; to provide that while considering any application for appointment of arbitrator, the High Court or the Supreme Court shall examine the existence of a prima facie arbitration agreement and not other issues; to provide that the arbitral tribunal shall make its award within a period of twelve months from the date it enters upon the reference and that the parties may, however, extend such period up to six months, beyond which period any extension can only be granted by the Court, on sufficient cause; to provide that a model fee Schedule on the basis of which High Courts may frame rules for the purpose of determination of fees of arbitral tribunal, where a High Court appoints arbitrator in terms of section 11 of the Principal Act; to provide that the parties to dispute may at any stage agree in writing that their dispute be resolved through fast track procedure and the award in such cases shall be made within a period of six months; to provide for neutrality of arbitrators, when a person is approached in connection with possible appointment as an arbitrator; to provide that application to challenge the award is to be disposed of by the Court within one year.