NITI Aayog launched the first-of-its-kind Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) handbook in India on April 9, 2021. The handbook is a request to Indian business leaders to embrace ODR. It emphasizes the need for such a mechanism, as well as the types of ODR models that companies can use and a direction for them to follow.
What is Online Dispute Resolution (ODR)?
Online dispute resolution (ODR) is one method of dispute resolution which uses technology to facilitate the resolution of disputes between parties.
It primarily involves negotiation, mediation or arbitration, or a combination of all three. In this regard, It is regarded as the online equivalent of alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
ODR may be applied to a range of disputes like:
- interpersonal disputes including consumer to consumer disputes (C2C)
- marital separation
- court disputes and
- interstate conflicts
What is ADR? And Different Types of ADR
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) typically denotes a wide range of dispute resolution processes and techniques that resolves disputes outside the courts. Hence it is also called ) external dispute resolution (EDR). The major forms of ADR include:
- Arbitration:
- The dispute is reported to an arbitrator or tribunal which makes a decision
- The award on the dispute is mostly binding on the parties and is final
- No right to appeal against arbitrator’s decision
- Conciliation:
- Conciliator, an impartial third party, assists both the parties in reaching a mutually satisfactory agreed settlement to a dispute
- It is a non-binding procedure – i.e., parties may accept or reject agreement
- Mediation:
- In mediation, the “mediator” (an impartial person) assists the parties to reach at a mutually acceptable resolution of the dispute
- Mediator just acts as a big brother but does not decide the settlement
- Both parties settle the dispute themselves
- Negotiation:
- It is the most common form of alternative dispute resolution method used in bussiness, legal, marriage, divorce and parenting cases etc.
- Both the parties themselves accept for negotiation and resolve the dispute themselves without seeking third party intervention
Significance of ODR
Speaking at the launching event of the handbook, Supreme Court Judge Justice DY Chandrachud said the ODR will make us reconsider the mechanism for dispute resolution. It has the potential to become a watershed document for the dispute resolution ecosystem in India.“
According to a press release from Niti Aayog, ODR is the use of digital technology and techniques of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), such as negotiation, mediation, and arbitration, to resolve disputes outside of courts, especially in “small and medium-value cases.”
Amitabh Kant, NITI Aayog CEO, said, “Online Dispute Resolution in India is at a crucial stage. A collaborative mechanism provides this potential to resolve a substantial percentage of disputes at the site of their occurrence without burdening the courts.
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