Latest news with #NationalMediationConference
Mint
04-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Small businesses, startups adopting mediation in contracts: law minister Meghwal
New Delhi: India's small businesses and startups have started adopting mediation in the dispute resolution clauses included in their contracts, Union law and justice minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said. Mediation is an inexpensive and expedited means of resolving disputes as it is not adversarial, he said, speaking at the first National Mediation Conference in New Delhi on Saturday. A dispute resolution clause determines how parties will resolve an issue if one arises. Commonly, most commercial contracts use arbitration as a dispute resolution mechanism. The event also marked the launch of the Mediation Association of India, a body of legal practitioners and mediation experts, which would work on suggesting best practices as well as rules of procedure in the mediation domain to the union government. The Union government had called for the creation of the Mediation Council of India under the Mediation Act 2023. The MCI, which has not been created yet, would have powers to ratify mediators, decide rules of procedure, and govern the actions and behaviour of mediators and mediation institutions, among other things. Meghwal also called for more mediation and less litigation in resolving disputes in the country, as it was closely linked to the investment sentiment about India. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta highlighted that mediation would reduce the burden on Indian courts and undo the pendency clog in the country's access to justice. President Droupadi Murmu called for extension of the Mediation Act 2023 to rural areas, legally empowering village panchayats to mediate any issues between parties. This mediation push comes in the wake of the Union government turning its back on arbitration, a preferred means of dispute resolution outside courts, in an advisory in June 2024. The advisory, by the Union finance ministry's department of expenditure, asked government entities in the country to use mediation or litigation over arbitration. According to the advisory, arbitration was expensive and time-consuming for the government, and mediation would be a relatively cheaper alternative. While arbitration involves parties bringing in a third party to adjudicate an issue and deliver a legally enforceable award, mediation involves both parties coming together to a consensus with the help of a third party. First Published: 4 May 2025, 10:09 AM IST
Time of India
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Courtrooms have winners & losers, but mediation's healing: CJI
NEW DELHI: CJI Sanjiv Khanna on Saturday said courtroom adjudication is grim and shallow, as it results in a winner and a loser - a process that fails to heal strained relationships between parties. He contrasted this with mediation, which, he said, seeks to provide a holistic solution that restores relationships. Speaking at the first National Mediation Conference inaugurated by President Droupadi Murmu, CJI Khanna said ' community mediation ' provision in the Mediation Act, 2023 is salutary as this can be an effective tool to resolve disputes that are likely to affect peace, harmony and tranquility among residents or families in a specific area or locality. "This is an important step forward," he said. Justice Khanna said unfortunately mediation, which is ingrained in our civilisational history, is not mainstreamed and not first choice of parties to a dispute even though modern mediation tools can provide solution to litigants, which is unavailable in courtrooms. "In courtroom adjudication, one party is right, the other is wrong. In this way, courtroom litigation and adjudication are grim and shallow. At times, the root cause remains unaddressed, and the ailment and pain remain. The relationships are strained, if not broken. There is a winner, there is a loser," he said. In contrast, mediation seeks to identify and remedy the root cause with a process that delves deeper into the issue, the cause of the misunderstanding between the parties and attempts a holistic solution without getting mired in legal procedures to restore the relationship between parties, he added. "Because process is voluntary and participatory, solution reached is less traumatic, more humane and acceptable," Justice Khanna said, adding that between 2016 and early 2025, a staggering 7,57,173 cases were settled using mediation. Comparing the courtroom justice delivery mechanism and the mediation crafted resolution, CJI Khanna said while a judge attempts to find whois at fault among the litigants who advance their case through argumentative lawyers, a mediator goes beyond the binaries and attempts to resolve misunderstandings, which is often the mother of most litigations. He said, "Mediation offers space by undoing complexity. It does not involve legal and procedural complexities. It is flexible and personalised, not bound by rigid procedure. And above all, it is empathetic - aiming not to win over the other side, but to bring together." Mediator's neutrality is crucial to achieve resolution of a dispute, said Justrice Khanna, adding that "a skilled mediator senses not only what is being said, but what lies beneath the words."
