Compulsory Mediation Vis-À-Vis Commercial Courts Act: A Positive Step Towards Mediation

INTRODUCTION

The Indian judicial system is overburdened with numerous cases which have a cascading effect on the entire country. Mechanisms like arbitration, mediation, conciliation, and negotiation can be used to attain the goal of expeditious and party-centric dispute resolution. To attain the goals, the Legislature has time and again tried to find ways to incorporate mediation with the existing recourse available to the parties in case of dispute settlement. One such example is the Commercial Courts Amendment Act, 2018. Here, the Legislature has made the pre-litigation mediation a mandatory step that needs to be exhausted before instituting a suit under the Commercial Courts Act. Pre-litigation mediation can be construed as an amicable process whereby the parties come together to settle their dispute with the aid of an impartial mediator before the institution of a suit.