New Delhi: Matrimonial cases involving divorce and custody battles formed the largest share of the one lakh cases settled during a recently concluded three-month mediation drive, data accessed by ThePrint revealed.
The data from the top court’s mediation committee showed that a little over eight percent of cases in which the parties decided to end their litigation were matrimonial in nature, followed by cheque-bounce cases, and compoundable criminal matters.
The “Mediation for Nation” drive, held from 1 July to 30 September, was the first-of-its-kind campaign launched to promote mediation as an effective Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism.
The 90-day drive was launched by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) and the Supreme Court’s Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee (MCPC). Justice Surya Kant, who is in line to succeed Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai, initiated the drive as the executive chairman of NALSA and MCPC. CJI Gavai is the patron-in-chief of the two bodies that work in close association with the Supreme Court.
Unlike arbitration, also an ADR mechanism, mediation is a non-adversarial and voluntary process, giving parties full autonomy to discuss and exchange offers to resolve their dispute.
Though the Mediation Act, 2023 recognises private mediation, the provision that permits this practice is not yet notified. Therefore, for now, only court-referred mediations have legal sanctity.
The five lakh cases sent to court-attached mediation centres during the drive were identified out of 1.68 crore cases with the potential for settlement.
As part of this initiative, the Supreme Court had called for data from all 33 high courts to study the success rate.
Given the volume of information, the MCPC has been able to analyse data from only 14 HCs so far, while analysis of the rest is pending, sources from the Supreme Court told ThePrint.
“The final figure of one lakh settled cases does not include connected matters that may have simultaneously been resolved. For example, a divorce case referred to mediation may have connected litigation of a domestic violence or a custody battle pending in the courts,” said one of the sources.
“Though these associated litigations do not get referred to mediation, they are always a part of the settlement agreement signed between the parties to finish off the pending case sent for mediation,” the source added.
According to the data, 8,103 matrimonial cases ended in successful mediation during the drive. Under this category, Karnataka led with 2,865 out of 11,292 cases settled, followed by Kerala, where 1,516 of 4,879 matrimonial litigations referred resulted in amicable resolution.
The second category that saw parties choosing mediation over litigation was cheque-bounce matters, with 5,637 cases being resolved. Of these, 1,165 matters were resolved in Delhi alone, followed by Kerala with 1,052 cases.
Successful resolution was also recorded in compoundable criminal cases. In Kerala, 1,148 cases were settled in this category, followed by Delhi, where 753 cases were mutually settled.
One of the sources quoted above said many cases under the “Other Suitable Cases” category, ranging from recovery and injunction to attachment and encroachment, were also settled during this drive.
Another source said that the MCPC has issued instructions to registrar generals of all the HCs to continue with mediation till the last case referred during this drive is decided.
“Even though the drive has concluded, we have asked the HCs to at least give a finality to those cases that were specifically identified for the drive. This will help MCPC to understand better about the kind of cases that can be resolved through mediation,” the source added.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)