Committee of Experts to Advice on SOP for Commercial Mediation and Standalone Law for Mediation in India

In the matter of Youth Bar Association of India and Others v. Union of India and Others. WP(C) No. 000849 of 2020, the petitioners have approached the Supreme Court seeking for standard operating procedures for implementation of pre-litigation mediation under Section 12A of Commercial Courts Act, 2015. The Supreme Court of India has on March 19, 2021, admitted the application for intervention made by Bridge Mediation, a policy think tank based out of New Delhi. Bridge was represented by Senior Advocate Arvind P. Datar and Advocate Anuroop Omkar, Partner of AK and Partners along with Advocate on Record in the matter Adv. Surabhi Guleria.

Bridge has sought intervention under Article 32 of the Constitution of India seeking the Apex Court for creating a committee of experts to guide on the ground level issues arising out of the implementation of Section 12A of Commercial Courts Act, 2015.

Anuroop Omkar, one of the founders of Bridge said, “We have been continuously working to bring in laws that promote commercial mediation of disputes in India. We have trained more than 350 people in commercial mediation, insolvency and turnaround under the aegis of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. But the real mediation revolution shall not come unless experts who understand what are international standards in mediation, problems with ground level implementation in India and expectations of commercial users do not join hands in laying down better processes for implementation of Section 12A of Commercial Courts Act, 2015. There is need to give parties freedom to choose their own mediator and institutional mediation service provider. It is time to make mediation a user friendly experience.”

Bridge is a policy think tank that has been actively assisting in drafting and research of most of the commercial mediation provisions that have been rolled out since the last 8 years in India. The bridge was also instrumental in institutionalization of commercial mediation with the Centre for Mediation and Conciliation, Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The founders of Bridge, Anuroop Omkar and Kritika Krishnamurthy are themselves celebrated authors and commercial mediators who are also empanelled with United Nations and World Bank respectively. Their book on mediation is recommended reading for mandatory mediation subject by Bar Council of India.

The application was admitted by the three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India comprising Hon’ble Chief Justice of India Mr S. A. Bobde, Hon’ble Justice Mr A.S. Bopanna and Hon’ble Justice Mr V. Rama Subramanian. In an interesting turn of events, the Hon’ble Bench has also sought clarification from the respondent Union of India and the High Courts of several states on whether the Parliament is considering the rollout of standalone legislation on mediation in India. The case is listed for hearing in the following week where the response from the respondents is expected.