{"id":34041,"date":"2023-08-21T22:03:34","date_gmt":"2023-08-21T16:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/?post_type=editorial-analysis&#038;p=34041"},"modified":"2023-08-21T22:03:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-21T16:33:34","slug":"mediation-bill-an-incomplete-settlement","status":"publish","type":"editorial-analysis","link":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/editorial-analysis\/mediation-bill-an-incomplete-settlement","title":{"rendered":"Mediation Bill: An Incomplete Settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Context:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, <\/span><b>the Mediation Bill, 2021 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was passed by the Rajya Sabha.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is in line with India\u2019s commitment as a signatory to the <\/span><b>Singapore Convention<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> i.e., United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Provisions of the Bill:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>The Mediation Council of India <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will be set up to register mediators and recognize mediation service providers and institutes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Reducing the time <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for concluding a mediation from <\/span><b>180 to 90 days.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Recognition and enforcement <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of settlement agreements arising out of mediation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bill introduces the concepts of <\/span><b>\u201conline\u201d and \u201ccommunity\u201d mediation.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Concerns Arising from the Bill:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Making pre-litigation mediation mandatory, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mandating mediation goes against its voluntary nature.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>The Mediation council may not have representation of prctising mediators <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with adequate experience.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>A prior approval from the central government<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is required by the Mediation Council before issuing regulations related to its essential functions. It is not clear why such prior approval is required.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bill applies to <\/span><b>international mediation only if they are conducted in India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It does not provide enforcement of outside India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Clause 8<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the Bill entitles a party to move the Court, before the commencement or during mediation, for interim relief, only in<\/span><b> \u201cexceptional circumstances\u201d, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is <\/span><b>neither defined nor compatible<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with the settled principles of seeking interim relief before the civil courts.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>No appellate recourse<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> against an order passed under this proposed section.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>For online mediation, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">there is less penetration of internet accessibility.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As per a recent <\/span><b>NITI Aayog report <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">only 27 percent of India possess compatible devices.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>For community mediation, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a panel of three mediators is a must, which is <\/span><b>an unnecessary requirement and against the flexibility of the mediation.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Restriction on the responsibility of the government<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to participate in mediation proceedings arising only out of \u201ccommercial disputes\u201d is against the objective of the legislation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>The Bill is more on form than on spirit<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> where the ordinary citizen will now require even more handholding to get justice.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The Path Ahead:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mediation should be promoted as<\/span><b> a preferred and voluntary mode<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of securing justice.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For online mediation to be a success, there is a <\/span><b>need to increase bandwidth accessibility.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Setting up legal aid<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or access to justice clinics is a need with<\/span><b> adequate IT infrastructure.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>It is <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a <\/span><b>\u00a0golden opportunity for the government to change the adverse perception against them, that <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">would <\/span><b>build confidence<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> amongst all stakeholders and have also<\/span><b> helped in reducing the pendency backlog.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b><i>News Source:<\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/mediation-bill-an-incomplete-settlement-8898924\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b><i> The Indian Express<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context:\u00a0 Recently, the Mediation Bill, 2021 was passed by the Rajya Sabha. It is in line with India\u2019s commitment as a signatory to the Singapore Convention i.e., United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation.\u00a0 Provisions of the Bill: The Mediation Council of India will be set up to register mediators and recognize&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/editorial-analysis\/mediation-bill-an-incomplete-settlement\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Mediation Bill: An Incomplete Settlement<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"paper-wise":[2089],"subject":[2100],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial-analysis\/34041"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial-analysis"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/editorial-analysis"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34041"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial-analysis\/34041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34043,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial-analysis\/34041\/revisions\/34043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34041"},{"taxonomy":"paper-wise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/paper-wise?post=34041"},{"taxonomy":"subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/subject?post=34041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}