An Abstract

Eminent jurist, Nani Palkhivala has reflected on the irony of the judicial system, in this fashion: “If longevity of litigation is made an item in Olympics, no doubt the Gold will come to India” Our judicial system has been embroiled in fierce criticism for its tremendous backlog, rigidity of procedure, exorbitant costs and interminable delays in adjudication of disputes. The adversarial character of litigation in conjunction with the formality of procedure renders the judiciary inept to address the longstanding problem of court congestion. The abysmal state of affairs as reflected in the statistics reveal that there are 35.4 lakh cases pending in 21 High courts in the country. On the other hand, the subordinate courts are plagued with a backlog of over 2 crore cases for as long as 25 to 30 years

Amid such a dismal state of affairs, Alternative method of dispute resolution presents itself as a panacea of most ills embossed in the traditional litigation mechanism. Alternative Dispute resolution (hereinafter referred to as “ADR”) a term used to refer to a wide array of non-judicial dispute resolution processes ranging from arbitration, mediation, negotiation, minitrials, and private judging –has become the cynosure of attention of the legal fraternity. The exponential rise in the prominence of ADR has been due to a combination of factors, such as saving of monetary, time and emotional costs, preservation of privacy and confidentiality, and party’s control over the resolution process. In contrast to the court’s fixation for procedural rules, ADR rests on an effective problem solving approach wherein the parties adopt creative and innovative strategies to fashion relief particular to the substance of dispute.