The ideal role of justice delivery system is to resolve the dispute between the parties permanently, amicably and in a manner by which both the parties or all the parties to the dispute enjoy win-win situation.
Such situation is not new to India as India for centuries together believe in resolution of the dispute by settlement or say by compromise.
A new chapter has been added in our civil procedure code by which alternative dispute resolution has been injected in our civil justice delivery system. It is discretion of the court to refer the case to ADR or not as the law provides that , “where ever it appears to the court that there exists an element of settlement the court should refer the dispute to alternative dispute resolution for its settlement”. In our law different alternative dispute resolutions have been recognised by amendment in the civil procedure code.
The important aspect of the alternative dispute resolution is , if the parties to the dispute arrives at settlement then the said settlement is final and binding.
As we know in our country the weakest point of our civil justice delivery system is huge pendency of the cases ,arrears of the cases in our courts, delay being caused in final adjudication of civil disputes. It was felt for long that we need to find out solutions for this situation by beating the unbeatable , the arrears of civil cases in our courts.
The amendments in our civil procedure code takes care of our national interest because if the arrears of civil cases will be reduced then in that case the international fraternity will not hesitate to execute contract with our merchants and thereby our national interest will be largely protected as it will have positive impact on economy and image of India. It also gives safety and hope to all our citizens or to all the Justice seekers because the rule is that, if by reference of the cases settlement is not arrived at in that case the same cases can be sent back to the courts of law for its final adjudication according to merits of the case. we have been able to address the issue of arrears of cases to the greatest extent . I look forward for a day when we as a country will be able to completely address the issue of arrears of cases in courts.
