In three years, 448 cases resolved at Jalandhar ADR

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 20

The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Centre has solved 448 civil and criminal cases in the past three years.

The centre provides an option of out-of-court settlement to aggrieved parties. With this, it is proving to be a faster and cheaper method of dispute resolution, besides ensuring privacy to the parties. 

In 2015, 1,108 cases were referred to the centre. The next year, the centre received 696 cases. In the first half of this year, the number of cases has touched 700 mark — 794 to be precise. Of them, 129 cases have been settled. 

Gurmeet Tiwana, CJM-cum-Secretary of the District Legal Service Authority, said: “A mediator tries to resolve the case and bring the aggrieved parties to resolution. Mostly, the cases are referral orders and are referred from courts to the ADR centre.” 

“A majority of resolved cases are concerned with matrimony, divorce and the Negotiable Instrument Act,” he said.

Tiwana further said, “All cases are kept confidential and secrecy is maintained between the mediator and the parties in dispute. The parties have to go through a joint session — first under the supervision of the mediator and then a single session is conducted which helps in the settlement of the case.”

The Jalandhar ADR Centre came into existence in 2008. In March 2015, a separate building was constructed for its working. The mediator has to go through 40 hours of training and a refresher course before becoming a mediator. 

The DLSA secretary added, “It is a voluntary process. Any person in dispute can file a petition for resolving his case. If the parties aren’t satisfied with the mediator, they have the option of getting a new one.”