The Chaos of Dispute Resolution in India
Dispute resolution mechanisms today are fragmented between Conciliation, Mediation, Arbitration, Litigation and ODR. Institutionally speaking, dispute administration is divided between courts, institutions and ad hoc neutrals. Among institutions there’s those created by law/ central government (eg. India International Arbitration Centre https://www.indiaiac.org), those that are court annexed/ judiciary led ( eg. Delhi International Arbitration Centre https://dhcdiac.nic.in/), cooperative society style institutions (International Agro Arbitration Centre (IAAC) https://agroarbitration.com/), private but government backed institutions (International Arbitration and Mediation Centre (Hyderabad) https://iamch.org.in/) and privately owned institutions. Within the privately owned institutions, there’s the not for profit ones, run either by technical experts (Indian Institute of Technical Arbitrators https://iitarb.org/), or backed by lawyers or retired judges (MCIA https://mcia.org.in/, IAMC(H) https://iamch.org.in/), or the for profit ones, run by barely lawyers (SAMA https://www.sama.live/) and non-lawyer, non-technical entrepreneurs led (Presolv360 https://www.presolv360.com/). Let’s not forget the categorization basis stage- pre-litigation institutions (like Delhi Dispute Resolution Society https://ddrs.delhi.gov.in/en), the statutory but limited relief institutions (like Facilitation Councils under MSME Act https://msme.gov.in/facilitation-counciles) and sector-specific institutions (SEBI enabled Smart ODR https://smartodr.in/login). This list is non-exhaustive and there’s probably more categories that can be added.
No Clear Path for Users
Users are left confused with no clue as to which is the right forum for them, which institutions are independent and which are backed by government or specific entity (financial institutions, e-commerce platforms, etc.); which are for profit corporations and which are free and community led; which are mandatory and which allow opt-out; which will bring finality to their dispute, which will only delay. Other than the above, smaller users specifically, often have absolutely no choice or autonomy in the matter. Or choice, even if given (for example in case of SEBI SmartODR), is only on paper and rarely presented as a choice in reality.
Inconclusive and Lengthy Multi-Tier System
Further, multi-tier dispute resolution clauses requiring users to exhaust each of the prior mechanism before moving to the next, add to the chaos of the dispute resolution industry. Not to forget, users empaneling multiple institutions for appointing and administration. Together, all of the above, make dispute management in India an extremely complex task. The scenario is even worse for organizations handling volumes of disputes on a regular basis.
Add to this.. the AI Push
And now with the push towards Digital India and the emphasis on AI, multiple techno-legal solutions or service providers, AI or non-AI based applications and AI solutions have also sprouted to add to the chaos created by the above factors. But in absence of any regulations, they are also marred with poor quality services, less than satisfactory ethics, non-compliant legal, confidentiality, data privacy and cyber security requirements.