Disputes are a part of everyone's life. Disputes are inevitable and are sure to arise in any personal or commercial association. There is nothing wron...g in having a dispute but what is important, how the parties handle that dispute. There could be two modes of addressing a dispute- adversarial like litigation and arbitration and non- adversarial like mediation and conciliation.

Justice Delivery System is India is described by technical procedures with characteristics of adversarial system with accompanying delays, arrears and taxing cost. Justice delivery system relies on win – lose situations that lead to repeated use of the legal process. The Justice Delivery System in India is under stress mainly because of the huge pendency of cases in courts. Non-adversarial system like mediation is a voluntary, party centered and structured negotiation process which allows the parties to communicate with each other to the root cause of their conflict, identify their underlying interests and helps them focus on finding out the solution themselves. Such non-adversarial modes of dispute resolution help in saving time and money of the parties and also in preserving relationship between the parties. A settlement if arrived at in a commercial dispute, strengthens the business relations and may result in a win-win situation for both the parties. Promoting mediation as a mode of addressing disputes between the parties would also save precious judicial time as well.

It's, therefore, critical for businesses to understand why mediation, rather than traditional litigation, should be used to resolve disputes.

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