Justice D. Y. Chandrachud said, “We know that the Indian courts are extremely overcrowded, hopelessly overcrowded.” Given the alarming rate of pending cases, dispute resolution mechanisms such as mediation are an important tool.
Justice Chandrachud spoke at the inauguration of the Indian Bar Association’s Center for Arbitration and Mediation (ILSCA). The objective of the ILSCA is to provide hands-on experience in arbitration and mediation training to all interested participants, whether they are law students, lawyers, first-level firms or legal institutes reason, is a cherished goal.
The pendency across all the courts grew by 2.8 per cent annually between 2010 to 2020. Justice Chandrachud said that during the past two years, the pandemic and the tribulations that it brought to humankind, worsened the already alarming rate of pendency of cases.
The data available indicates that more than 4.1 crore cases are pending in district and taluka courts and approximately 59 lakh cases are pending in different high courts. As of today, 71,000 cases are pending before the Supreme Court.
In view of these numbers, a dispute resolution mechanism such as mediation is an important tool for enhancing access to justice by providing remedial and appropriate dispute resolution. non-adversarial manner, not following formal legal procedures.
Justice Chandrachud said that there is no doubt that mediation has become famous all over the world and certainly in India and Parliament recently introduced the Mediation Bill 2021.
The Singapore Convention on Mediation is the right step to ensure the implementation of an agreed settlement through international mediation.
The Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee, Supreme Court of India, has undertaken steps to lay down model mediation codes, facilitate training of mediators across the country and regulate the process across all districts.
