About Delhi Mediation Centre

To know what exactly is meant by mediation, one should refer to the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi refers to mediation as a process where disputes are solved in a very convenient and practical matter so that both the parties are brought together. The main responsibility of giving justice to the general public vests with the judicial officers and judges. It is these people who interpret laws and solve the disputes for people.

In order to keep up the amicable resolution method as mentioned by Mahatma Gandhi, the judicial authorities of the Delhi District Courts in Delhi came up with a new concept known as judicial mediation. This is a method of solving cases by creating a perfect win-win situation for both the parties and arriving at a mutually agreeable settlement for them. This new concept of solving cases under dispute was conceived by a committee formed by the Chief Justice of India. This committee contains judges of the Supreme Court of India, High Courts, district courts, senior lawyers and judicial officers and all related officers who are qualified enough to arrive at mediation at cases.

The Judicial Officers who were picked up for providing mediation were trained by experts who had flown in all the way from America. Though the training staffs were from America, the training methodologies were fully Indian. Methodologies explained by Mahatma Gandhi were employed in training the people to solve the problems of their clients in such a way that hundred per cent compromise and mutual settlement was aimed at. Section 89 of the Civil Code Procedure too, specifies the same.

In the concept of judicial mediation, services are rendered to the general public free of cost. However, once the case is solved successfully through mediation and a decree follows it, Court Fees Act, 1870, Section 16, states that a plaintiff has a right to get and is given a certain amount of money as refund of court fees. Sometimes, the mediator also provides refreshments to the plaintiffs and his or her lawyers at no cost, if he thinks it is appropriate. These are just some of the features that have made the concept of judicial mediation started off by the Delhi Mediation Centre, very unique, when compared to other modes of dispute settlement.

This concept has been so successful and so well-managed in Delhi, that the Delhi Mediation Centre has been asked to share its success-story with the Madhya Pradesh High Court based out of Jabalpur and at Bhopal’s National Judicial Academy and to train the officials there. In Delhi alone, the centre had successfully trained at least 11 judicial officers in the department of amicable dispute settlement.