See You Out of Court

aka  >  Justice Privatized

 

That is the title of an article ( authored by Indulekha Arvind ) , in today’s Economic Times ( Magazine )

Online version can be found at :

Online dispute resolution is beginning to find takers in India 

For benefit of readers, here are the highlights of that article :

Ø  What is ODR ?

A way to settle disputes outside courts, combining tech and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms

Ø  Why is it useful ?

Can ease pressure on courts with 4.56 million cases pending in high courts and 31.5 million in district courts

Ø  What is ODR process ?

[ A ]…. One party approaches ODR firm

[ B ]…. Firm reaches out to the other party

[ C ]…. If both parties agree to arbitration rules…

[ D ]…. Arbitrator appointed

[ E ]…. Time-stamped intimations sent via email and WhatsApp

[ F ]…. Interactions rake place online or on phone

[ G ]…. Verdicts typically given within a month

Ø  In India, who are involved in running ODR platforms ?

[ 1 ]…. Shalini Saxena / Kanchan Gupta ( Cadre  /  support@thecadre.in )

[ 2 ]…. Pranjal Sinha  /  pranjal@sama.live /  pranjal@odrways.com

           Akshetha Ashok /  akshetha@odrways.com

           Vikram Kumar  /  vikram@odrways.com

            ( Sama / info@sama.live  / https://odrways.com/?page_id=2 )

          

                     

[ 3 ]…. Vikas Mahendra ( Centre for Online Dispute Resolution- CODR )

           mumbai@keystone.law  /  vikas.mahendra@keystone.law

[ 4 ]…. Chittu Nagarajan ( CREK ODR ) / chittunagarajan@gmail.com

Ø  ODR Globally

#  European Union

    It is mandatory for all online traders to provide a link to EU’s ODR platform

#  USA

    E-Comm companies began offering ODR in early 2000s ; various county courts in

    the US now mandate ODR as a first step

#  China

     Hangzhou Interne Court for ecommerce disputes offr ODR platform

#   Brazil

      Consumidor platform allows consumers and internet companies to solve disputes

      Directly ; resolved 2 million complaints in 5 years

MY TAKE :

I congratulate the above-mentioned Startups for their initiative

In my following blog ( sent as email to our Policy Makers ),

[  Justice delayed is Justice Denied  /  12 Sept 2018 ],

 

I wrote :

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If we want to reduce the average “case disposal time “ from 6 YEARS to 6 MONTHS , we must do better than the Chinese – as follows :

      #        Launch online portal……..www.OnlineJustice.gov.in

          …..having following features / pages / User Interfaces :

#   Who can register a litigation and how ( detailed form to be filled in )

#   What kind of complaints can be filed ( Eg; property / divorce / fraud / loans etc )

#   Time frame of hearings ( based on backlog at that point )

#   Search / Selection of “ empanelled lawyers “ ( with their fees tariff )

#   Method of conducting “ Online Trial “ ( Audio – Video Conference calls )

#   Online payment of Court Fees / Lawyer’s fees

#   Who can “ watch “ the online trial and how ( Video broadcast ) and when

#   Progress Chart as trial proceeds / Upload – Download of documents

#   Court Room allotted ( by software ) to each litigation

     Not being limited by any “ Physical Constraints “ , it will be possible ( for the

     software ), to open as many “ Virtual / Online “ Court Rooms as required

     Only limitation will be the Number of available Judges at any given time

     Let none have doubts about the ability of our Start Ups to design / develop and launch

     such a portal within 6 months , whose “ Conceptual Frame Work “ could resemble ,

     On Line Jobs Fair   

     Software Architecture For Online Jobs Fair   

     And as far as finding 10,000 Judges to conduct “ Online Trials “ from the comfort of

     their homes ( and without imposing any “ Infrastructure Burden “ on the State –

     except providing them with a fast broadband connection ) , I suggest that we rope in

     retired judges on a “ Per Case Retainer “ basis ( paid into their Jan Dhan accounts )

      There must be a “ Bonus cum Penalty “ formula to govern the payments to the Judges ,

      depending upon the “ Actual Time “ taken to dispose off a given case as against the “

      Target Time “ ( to be computed by Artificial Intelligent Software , based on historical

      data being continuously compiled for all the cases , once the portal gets launched )

      I urge Chief Justice Hon Deepak Misraji to treat this email as a PIL and “ direct “ the

      NDA government to initiate action on this suggestion ( I cannot afford a lawyer ! )

     Your " Activism " in this matter will go a long way to restore the faith of the ordinary

     citizens in the judiciary  !

 

  =========================================================

Once , Mahatma Gandhi had said :

“ I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the culture of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any ”

I urge Shri RaviShankar Prasadji ( Minister for Law ), to facilitate an “ ODR Culture “ to blow freely in India

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12  Jan  2020

hcp@RecruitGuru.com