Strengthening Mediation in India
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STRENGTHENING MEDIATION IN INDIA INTERIM REPORT ON COURT ANNEXED MEDIATIONS Alok Prasanna Kumar Ameen Jauhar Kritika Vohra Ishana Tripathi July, 2016 www.vidhilegalpolicy.in This Report is an independent, non-commissioned piece of academic work. The authors would like to thank Mr. Anil Gulati, Mr. Chandrakant Reejonia, Hon’ble Justice Ms. Gita Mittal (Delhi High Court), Hon’ble Justices Mr. G.S. Sistani, Mr. Jayant Nath, Mr. R.K. Gauba (Delhi High Court), Mr. Sudhanshu Batra, Ms. Sadhana Ramachandran, Mr. Chandrashekhar Reddy, Mr. Sumant Batra, Ms. Asha Batra and Ms. Nitika Khaitan, for their inputs. Errors, if any in the Report, are the authors’ alone. The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy is an independent legal policy advisory group whose mission is to achieve good governance in India by impacting legislative and regulatory design. For more information, see www.vidhilegalpolicy.in About the Authors Mr. Alok Prasanna Kumar is a Senior Resident Fellow at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, in the Judicial Reforms Initiative. Mr. Ameen Jauhar is a Research Fellow at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy in the Judicial Reforms Initiative. Ms. Kritika Vohra and Ms. Ishana Tripathi are Associate Fellows with Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. © Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, 2016 i CONTENTS Contents ................................................................................................................ i List of Tables ......................................................................................................... iii Executive Summary .................................................................................................. 1 Preface ................................................................................................................. 3 A. Background .................................................................................................. 3 B. Research Methodology ..................................................................................... 4 C. Structure of the Report ................................................................................... 5 1. Mediation Frameworks In Different Jurisdictions ........................................................ 6 A. Overview ..................................................................................................... 6 1. Building a successful mediation practice ........................................................... 8 2. Codification ............................................................................................. 10 B. Jurisdictional Analysis .................................................................................... 11 1. Australia ................................................................................................. 11 2. Singapore ................................................................................................ 17 3. United Kingdom ........................................................................................ 24 4. United States of America ............................................................................. 28 2. Empirical Analysis of Mediation Centres .................................................................. 35 A. Introduction ................................................................................................ 35 1. Prior empirical analyses of mediation in India .................................................... 35 2. Data Collection for the Interim Report- A broad overview ..................................... 36 3. Terminology for the Interim Report ................................................................ 37 B. Data from the BMC ........................................................................................ 37 1. Data obtained from the BMC and the Supreme Court website ................................. 38 2. Analysis of BMC data ................................................................................... 46 C. Data from the DMC ........................................................................................ 59 1. Data obtained from the DMC and the Supreme Court website ................................. 59 2. Analysis of DMC Data .................................................................................. 61 D. Concluding comments on the empirical analysis .................................................... 65 1. Comparative analysis- the BMC and the DMC ..................................................... 65 2. Concluding comments- mediation in India......................................................... 66 3. Conclusion and the Way Forward .......................................................................... 68 A. Way Forward Strategy .................................................................................... 68 1. Additional empirical research ....................................................................... 68 2. Discussion with stakeholders ......................................................................... 68 ii B. Recommendations on Regulatory Framework ........................................................ 69 1. Role of Referral Judges ............................................................................... 69 2. Training and Accreditation of Mediators ........................................................... 70 3. Infrastructural Development and Administration ................................................ 70 4. User Awareness ......................................................................................... 70 5. Pre-litigation mediation .............................................................................. 70 C. Codification of Mediation Framework ................................................................. 71 Annexures Annexure – 1: Questionnaire seeking quantitative data from the mediation centres at Delhi and Bangalore Annexure – 2: Data received from the Bangalore Mediation Centre Annexure – 3: Data received from the Delhi High Court Mediation and Conciliation Centre iii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Data for 2010 and 2011 .................................................................................. 12 Table 2: Data pertaining to commercial and construction disputes ........................................ 13 Table 3: Data pertaining to SCDRs and PDRCs .................................................................. 19 Table 4: Data sought and obtained from the BMC and the DMC ............................................ 36 Table 5: New cases referred for mediation, as a percentage of cases freshly instituted in the Karnataka High Court ............................................................................................... 38 Table 6: Cases referred for mediation from 2011 to 2015 classified as civil, criminal and unclassifiable .......................................................................................................................... 39 Table 7: Civil cases referred for mediation from 2011 to 2015, as a percentage of civil cases freshly instituted in the Karnataka High Court .......................................................................... 39 Table 8: Cases mediated, settled and not settled, in numbers and percentages ....................... 40 Table 9: Cases that were non-starters ........................................................................... 40 Table 10: Non-starters classified based on reasons, in numbers and as a percentage of the total number of cases returned.......................................................................................... 41 Table 11: Total number of mediation hours, average time per case and average number of sessions per case ............................................................................................................... 42 Table 12: Cases pending for mediation at the end of the year ............................................. 43 Table 13: Top ten types of cases referred for mediation the most ........................................ 43 Table 14: Family law cases referred for mediation ........................................................... 44 Table 15: Divorce cases referred for mediation and settled ................................................ 44 Table 16: Property law cases referred for mediation ......................................................... 45 Table 17: Allocation of cases among mediators ............................................................... 45 Table 18: Disposal of cases by the Karnataka High Court and number of new cases referred for mediation ............................................................................................................. 49 Table 19: Disposal of civil cases by the Karnataka High Court and number of new civil cases referred for mediation ......................................................................................................... 50 Table 20: Number of cases referred for mediation, number of cases mediated, number of cases settled and the settlement rates (in descending order) for types of cases for which at least 100 cases were mediated in the period of 2011 to 2015 .................................................................. 54 Table 21: Case types for which more than ten cases were referred for mediation and over 35% of the cases were non-starters (in descending order), for 2011-2015 .............................................. 55 Table 22: Case types with the highest average time (in descending order) for the period of 2011 to 2015 ...................................................................................................................