Bill To Promote Institutional Mediation To Be Introduced In Rajya Sabha

Mediation Bill 2021: The purpose of the Bill is to encourage community mediation to make online mediation an acceptable and cost effective process.

Union Law & Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju speaks in the Rajya Sabha during the Winter Session of Parliament, in New Delhi, Monday, Dec. 13, 2021. (RSTV/PTI Photo)

New Delhi: The Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju is expected to introduce the Mediation Bill in Rajya Sabha today to promote and facilitate mediation, especially institutional mediation.

The Bill would also seek for resolution of disputes, commercial or otherwise, mediated settlement agreements, and provide for a body for the registration of mediators, reports ANI. 

The report stated that the purpose of the Bill is to encourage community mediation to make online mediation an acceptable and cost-effective process.

India is one of the signatories of the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (Singapore Convention) among 53 other nations. Following the convention, the Bill seeks to make mediation a sought-after mode of alternative dispute resolution in India.  

The Mediation Bill, 2021 is divided into four parts, where Part-I deals with domestic mediation while Part-III deals with mediation as per the Singapore Convention.

Section 2 of the Bill defines domestic mediation as one conducted in India, where all or both the parties habitually reside or incorporated or have their business in India. 

The Bill defines a ‘mediation service provider’ as a body or organization that provides for the conduct of mediation and has procedures and rules in place to govern the conduct of mediation in conformity with the provisions of the statute. 

The Bill would also recognise online mediation held through the use of applications and computer networks, resorted to either wholly or partly, at a certain point of the mediation process.

The Bill further states that all such mediations would be governed under the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000.