Mediation

In 1842, the then Prime Minister of Britain, Mr William E. Gladstone had
rightly stated that “justice delayed is justice denied” and these words of
wisdom couldn’t be more appropriate in describing the current situation
of the Indian Judiciary.

The concept of mediation received legislative recognition in
India for the first time in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
The formal legality to mediation was given by the Indian
Parliament when it passed the Amendment Act of 1999

Mediation is a flexible process, which means strict rules of
evidence and formal rules of procedure do not apply as
compared to a court procedure. Typically, a Mediation has
several stages which are followed by the mediator during the
process of mediation.

The biggest roadblock that confronts any
party that is desirous of exploring mediation
is the inherent lack of autonomy in deciding
whom to approach. In arbitration and
conciliation proceedings, parties have the
option to approach ad-hoc arbitrators or
undertake arbitration under the auspices of
any of the recognised arbitration
institutions.

In most countries of the world, especially the
developed countries, over 90 per cent of
cases are settled out of court. In these
countries, the dispute between parties is
legally allowed to go to trial only when there
is a failure to reach a resolution through
Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.

Mediation is a dynamic process in which a neutral third party, the Mediator, facilitates the resolution
of dispute between the parties. The mediator helps parties to communicate with each other,
identifies the real underlying issues and helps parties explore and generate resolution options

In India, Mediation is at a very nascent stage and there are now a few
legislations which mandate mediation as a first step in the dispute
resolution process.

Continuing our series on debunking some of the Myths associated with mediation. We shall debunk
some more myths in this part.
 Myth 4 : Lawyers Do Not Have Any Role in Mediation
Mediation being a process driven by parties and settled by the
parties, leads to an impression that lawyers do not have any role

Mediation is a process where a neutral third
party called the Mediator, whom the parties
trust, assists the parties to amicably resolve
their disputes through structured negotiation. A
Mediator is a neutral third party selected by the
parties.

Two friends A and B started an IT related service company
to provide some innovative software solutions to the IT
industry in Bangalore. They had worked in the software
industry for a few years and decided to start a company
on their own. They had some brilliant ideas and worked

A substantial chunk of disputes in India relate to real estate. Nature of
such disputes relate to delayed possession, defective construction,
delay in refund of advances, interest payments, kind of amenities
provided, size of the plot or apartments, lopsided agreements etc.

We frequently come across news relating to medical negligence
cases, where some patient has not been treated properly by some
hospital or the negligence has proved fatal to the patient

Impasse has been defined by Oxford dictionary as a “situation in which no progress is possible,
especially because of disagreement, a deadlock”.
Mediation is a voluntary process where the parties decide to participate and explore options for

Workplace dispute is imminent in any work situation, whether service sector or manufacturing. In
any company or organisation, conflicts are bound to be there either between the management and
the employees or between two employees or between different groups of employees.

Commercial disputes both big and small constitute a
reasonable chunk of our adversarial dispute resolution
mechanism (Court cases). The economic development, with
increased commercial activity not only between
organisations / entities in India but also cross border has
added to the spike in commercial disputes. The government

It is said that an “ounce of Mediation is worth a pound of Arbitration and a ton of
Litigation”. Mediation is a part of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) family. It is a
voluntary and confidential process where a neutral third party (called the mediator)

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbours to compromise whenever you can. Point
out to them how the nominal winner is often the real loser — in fees, and expenses, and waste
of time. As a peace-maker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There

Every day we come across news relating to some ghastly road accident in which either people have
lost their lives or some have survived but maimed for life.
What is the remedy for these people? What options do the
victims themselves or the families have to get an award of

Many of the partnerships in India are formed based on informal structure and understanding. Most
of them are not registered and have very simple partnership agreements. These agreements are
drawn up by the partners themselves and do not clearly specify the roles and responsibilities of the

Family run businesses are an important part of the Indian economy. According to a report by Credit
Suisse, India has the third largest number of family run businesses in the world after US and China.1
Family run businesses have a presence across the spectrum – from the biggest conglomerate in