Rajya Sabha passes Mediation Bill 2021

Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed the Mediation Bill, 2021, which halves the maximum time for completing mediation proceedings to 180 days.

The bill was passed with voice vote amid a walk out by opposition members, demanding a discussion on the Manipur issue and a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the House.

Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said, "Under this we are making the Mediation Council of India. This is a neutral third party. This bill makes the process a time-bound mechanism which saves time and money of parties."

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The bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha in August 2021 and later, it was referred to the Standing Committee on Law and Personnel.

"We have considered most of the suggestions of the committee," Meghwal said and added that based on the suggestions of the parliamentary panel that the pre-litigation mediation was made voluntary instead of mandatory.

India has had a tradition of mediation and the process of court cases started under the British Rule, he said.

Mediation was used to resolve the Assam-Nagaland border dispute and it was mentioned in the House that it had played a role in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute case, Meghwal said.

He said that 52,968 cases have been resolved through mediation between April 2021 to March 2022. This is low for a country as big as India and given the number of pending litigation in various courts, the minister said and added that mediation comes under alternate dispute resolution.

According to data shared by the minister, there are 4.43 lakh cases pending in district subordinate courts, 60.63 lakh cases in high courts and around 70,000 cases in the Supreme Court.

Nine members participated in the discussion on the bill.

BJP member Sudhanshu Trivedi said that justice is meted out through the judicial system but the poor face a lot of problems due to the present system. Soon there will be a system that will create professional mediators, he said.

Trivedi cited the observation of a judge from Andhra Pradesh that if all the pending litigations are to be resolved in the current form then it will take 300 years.

BSP member Ramji supported the Mediation Bill. The MP also mentioned that provisions of the SC/ST Act are being violated across the country.

Section 14 of the SC/ST Act says a special court should be created in every district and cases will have to be disposed of within two months but no significant work has been done, he said.

BJD member Amar Patnaik supported the bill and said there was no stand-alone mediation bill in the country and this is the first such bill.

"I think this will be a stand-alone significant legislation for the country and this will go a long way to improve the ease of doing business in this country. It will also solve the problem of pendency in lower courts for people who belong to the lower section and the poor who cannot afford," Patnaik said.

BJP member Bhubaneswar Kalita said that the bill provides institutional mediation for the resolution of disputes and encourages community mediation.

YSRCP member S Niranjan Reddy supported the bill. He also suggested that if a mediation service does not provide a mediator within seven days then the government may need to think about allowing a party to approach the court.

BJP member S Phangnon Konyak said mediation is a game changer and it will change the way justice is delivered in the country.

YSRCP member V Vijayasai Reddy supported the bill and said that at present there are 4.5 crore civil cases pending before various courts and only 19,000 cases per annum are disposed of by way of arbitration or mediation which is less than one per cent of the pending cases.

He suggested that there is a need to increase the number of mediators by 100 times as there are 16,000 mediators working in 570 mediation centres.