NHAI To Accommodate Online Dispute Resolution For Speedy Dispute Settlements

2024-04-15 12:46:22 News & Society

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India is a growing economy with a fast pace infrastructural development and to stay at par with the world development standards, the Government of India is leaving no stones unturned. In this spree of development, one of the most ambitious initiatives launched by the Indian Government is the "Digital India". The core idea behind this initiative is to make India digitally empowered in the field of technology and to ensure that Government services are being made available to citizens electronically via an improved online infrastructure and strong Internet connectivity.

E-commerce is another field which is benefitted because of the Digital India initiative, but because it is a new field in India, the laws around it are still evolving. As the use of e-commerce activities in India is increasing, the number of consumer disputes is also arising out of e-commerce transactions. The traditional litigation system and consumer protection methods, like alternative dispute resolution, are failing to fruit any good.

In the process of modernizing the litigation system, Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) is gaining the attention of policymakers and various other stakeholders around the globe. The advantage of ODR is that it has all the ADR methods in it with an addition of information and communication technology (ICT). This is helping to shift the old arbitration to cyber arbitration in India.

Although the ODR is only in its budding stage in India, it is already gaining awareness among the stakeholders. ODR methods and cyber arbitration have the potential to help the consumers and e-commerce portal owners to resolve their disputes in a timely, cost-effective and more transparent manner in this technology-driven markets.

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), an autonomous agency of the Government of India, responsible for the management National Highways network, is also trying to incorporate Online Dispute Resolution mechanism to find a way out to resolve the pending claims, which worth crores of rupees, and also the future cases.

The NHAI?s new ODR is a mechanism where neither the contractor nor the authority needs to engage with an advocate. The sole idea behind this is to get the quick harmonious settlement of disputes, avoiding unnecessary litigation, and playing a constructive role in highway development projects.

Under the ODR, the cases will be referred to the expert panels that will help them to come to a common understanding over the dispute and draw a solution. The case will reach the panel only when both the parties, i.e. NHAI chairman and the chief of contractor board of directors, exhaust all the scope of conciliation and settlement.

In case of the older cases, which have already reached the courts and tribunals, if the parties are willing to involve ODR expert panels for settlement, then the private player will have to explicitly submit it to the court or tribunal to put the hearing in abeyance.
The CGM (IT & Highway Operations) of NHAI, Mr Akhilesh Srivastava, is the member of the High powered committee on Online Dispute Resolution (ODR). He has also developed an online portal for ODR, which is due for the demo to UNCITRAL. According to Mr Akhilesh Srivastava, there is a great opportunity for India in ODR and he believes that it can create a significant amount of job opportunities, especially for the software engineers and law graduates, and also thinks that it can make India a favourite destination for Online Dispute Resolution in future.

For more information reach us on http://www.nhai.gov.in/