Alternative Dispute Resolution and its Effectiveness in India

Dispute resolution is the process of deciding a dispute or a conflict that has arisen between transacting parties. The decision can be arrived at either in an amicable manner or adversarial manner. Arbitration or mediation as an alternative to dispute resolution by municipal courts has been prevalent in India from Vedic times. Our Constitution under Articles 39-A and 21 provide for free legal aid to the indigent persons and right to life respectively. Following the mandate of our Constitution, our legislators passed the Legal Service Authorities Act, 1987 and The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 which was passed on 16th August, 1996 taking into account UNCITRAL Model law and rules. The present research paper focuses on the effectiveness of Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms in India. The broad objective includes (a) A comparative analysis of institutional ADRs and Ad-hoc ADR, (b) to evaluate effectiveness of ADR mechanism and (c) to make concrete suggestions. ADR techniques like Arbitration, Conciliation, Mediation and Lok Adalat have their different practical application and effectiveness. On analysis of different ADR techniques in relation to Indian judicial system, it is found that mediation and lok adalat have more significance as compare to conciliation and arbitral techniques.