1. Introduction to ADR
The Constitution of India aims at providing protection of life and personal liberty. For this purpose, the Constitution provides for a system of Courts. In India, the Supreme Court of India is at the apex of entire judiciary system with a High Court for each State or a group of States. Punjab and Haryana have one High Court at Chandigarh. The seven States in North East India have only one High Court at Guwahati. Under the High Court, there is a hierarchy of subordinate Courts. The Courts have well defined and recognized system of settling the disputes. The Courts have formal rules for settlement of disputes and their decision is binding on the parties. The system is highly technical and formal. But the litigation does not always lead to satisfactory results. It is expensive in terms of money and time. These are the reasons due to which parties look upon an alternate way of resolving their disputes.
It is a well known fact that the present Judicial System is extremely expensive and delaying. The parties to a dispute have to wait for Justice for years. This lengthy and expensive process of litigation has reduced the faith of common people in the Judicial System being followed by the Courts. These weaknesses of Judicial System has given birth to alternative remedies for the disposition of disputes. Alternative remedies provide cheap and speedy Justice and that is the reason that ADR mechanism is being preferred by the disputing parties for the resolution of their disputes.
Arbitration was very popular and prevalent in ancient India, too and 'Awards' were the decisions of Panchayats, which were binding in nature. ADR refers to the methods of resolving a dispute, which are alternatives for litigation in Courts. ADR processes are decision making processes that do not involve litigation or violence. In India, an alternative system is available to the disputing parties including Arbitration, Conciliation, Mediation, Negotiation etc.
The approach of judges, lawyers and parties all over the world is changing in favour of adoption of ADR instead of Court litigation. Arbitral institutions provide ADR services for quicker, less costly and consensual resolution of civil disputes outside the crowded court system. ADR promotes communication between the parties and enables them to solve their actual concerns behind the disputes.
Many disputes like consumer complaints, family disputes, construction disputes, business disputes can be effectively resolved through ADR. It can be used in almost every kind of dispute which can be filed in a court as a civil dispute.
When a civil suit is filed in a court of law, a formal process takes place, which is operated by advocates and managed by the court and the parties are then left to wait for the orders of the Court. The outcome of the case is uncertain. After the decision of the case there can be an appeal or other proceedings which may further delay the implementation of the decision of the case.
