Importance and Scope of Alternate Dispute Resolution
Introduction
The fact that the Indian judicial system is expensive and time-consuming is the source of the majority of critiques. The number of ongoing cases in Indian courts has risen dramatically in recent years.
Lawyers always wanted to win cases in an adversarial judicial system like ours. Justice is not a prime facie factor.
As a result, there is an increase in the number of confrontations between the parties.
With all of these difficulties centered on the Indian judicial system’s failure to settle disagreements in the most effective manner, a new concept known as Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) arose (ADR).
It is evolving into a viable alternative to India’s adversarial legal system, and is now known as the ‘consensual legal system.’
ADR is a method of resolving disputes between parties that is more cost-effective, quick, peaceful, and gratifying.
Importance
- The parties choose which procedural and domestic rules be used to their dispute in arbitration.
- Attorneys and expert witnesses can be rather costly. A case can easily cost hundreds of thousands of rupees to litigate. ADR has the advantage of resolving the matter swiftly and at a lower cost.
- ADR permits the parties to work together with a neutral arbitrator or mediator to resolve the conflict.
- When a disagreeing party decides to use ADR, the process can begin at any moment.
- ADR programmes are not in a fixture.
- ADR is to be used to de-escalate the severity of a dispute between the parties.
Absoludity of Arbitration
The Arbitration and Conciliation Act of 1996 was passed in India, introducing the process of arbitration.
If the parties to the dispute have signed an Arbitration Agreement to the occurrence of the dispute can the process begin?
The parties can appoint an arbitrator individually or through the Chief Justice’s office. An Arbitration Tribunal is formed by a panel of these Arbitrators.
The most common complaint of arbitration is that in some jurisdictions, an arbitral ruling can be challenged in civil court. As a result, a procedure whose primary goal is to provide a platform for the rapid resolution of conflicts is allowing disagreements to return to the adversarial cycle that it was designed to avoid in the first place.
Mediation as a future method
It’s a method in which the disputants come up with their own conditions to help them resolve their differences. A Mediator is a neutral third party who oversees the process and assists the disputing parties in communicating.
There is a significant and sincere effort to uncover the underlying difficulties and disagreements between the parties, and complete secrecy is maintained.
There are sessions in which the mediator discusses the matter with the parties in the absence of the other so that the parties are not hesitant. Following that, there are joint sessions in which an attempt is made to resolve the dispute.
The Need for ADR
Lawyers are settling disputes matters in an amicable way.
ADR allows for a peaceful resolution of disagreements. In business, having a competition rather than a rival is a wise strategy. It is obvious that healthy competition leads to an improvement and also has a cost influence on the price of services or commodities in all spheres.
Trial are completed as soon as possible.
ADR enables trials to be happening quickly. In contrast to the litigation procedure, there is no possibility of an adjournment or stay order in ADR.
Dispute resolution that is cost-effective
Unlike the litigation process, when large sums of money are required to pay the lawyers and other participants in the trial, this is not the case in ADR, where only a little amount of money is required.
Management that saves time
ADR is said to be dispute management because it is allowing a conflict to settle without going through the lengthy process of traditional litigation.
Recognition by the law
The Indian Statutes have accepted this system. For example, the Civil Procedure Code, Order 32-A, Rule 3 now allows for compromise, and the decree that results from it is not appealable. Section 12 of the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947.
Scope
ADRs are in use in an increasing number of instances, and the public chooses them as a means of obtaining quick and cost-effective results.
Online Dispute Resolution and Gram Nyaylayas are two new advances in the field of alternative dispute resolution. These alternatives would broaden ADR’s scope in India. Mediation is likely to become the most efficient in the next few years because it guarantees a win-win outcome.