ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION: BETWEEN EFFICIENT JUSTICE AND REAL JUSTICE

One of the most vital systems for any democracy is that of the system of dispensation of justice. However, with the increase in the workload of the court over the years, delay in proceedings, increase in litigation cost, and complexity of procedure, accessibility of justice by common people has been made extremely difficult . In India, in particular, the problem of backlog of cases is a matter of concern with millions of cases pending in courts for many years, some even for decades. In this context, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) serves as a highly efficient tool that can help resolve disputes in quick, cheap, and flexible manner. Alternative Dispute Resolution is the process of dispute resolution outside the conventional process of litigation. The different kinds of ADR processes include arbitration, mediation, negotiation, and conciliation. Alternative Dispute Resolution not only aims at reducing workload on courts but also encourages parties to find settlement to their disputes through cooperative means. Nowadays, ADR is regarded not just as an alternative but also as an integral part of the system of justice. Over the past few decades, ADR has seen a tremendous growth worldwide. In India also, legislative and judicial support for ADR has grown significantly through the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, Section 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the Commercial Courts Act, and more recently the Mediation Act, 2023. While there are several benefits of ADR, there have been some controversies surrounding it raised by experts in the field. The first one being the possibility of institutionalizing ADR too much, which might result in the failure of fulfilling its true objective. In addition to this, there is skepticism among the people about how settlement oriented procedures can be just. The current research paper explores the growth, importance, issues, and future scope of ADR with particular emphasis on its application in India. The development of ODR and the contemporary debate regarding efficiency versus justice in dispute resolution mechanisms are discussed in detail.