by Police - Bureau of Police Research and Development

The Indian Police JournalThe above-mentioned Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanismsare corporate-friendly. Commercial parties enter into contracts withArbitration Clause. Most of the companies resort to Alternate DisputeMany institutions have been established for the purpose of AlternateDispute Resolution implementation. However, the class of minor/civildisputes, which plagues all Police Stations, does not lend itself well toabove mechanisms.Of greater interest to us is Part III of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act,1996 which deals with conciliation. Section 73 of the Act reads:“(1) When it appears to the conciliator that there exists elementsof settlement which may be acceptable to the parties, heshall formulate the terms of a possible settlement and submitthem to the parties for their observations. After receiving theobservations of the parties, the conciliator may reformulatethe terms of a possible settlement in the light of suchobservations.(2) If the parties reach agreement on a settlement of the dispute,they may draw up and sign written settlement agreement.If requested by the parties, the conciliator may draw up, orassist the parties in drawing up, the settlement agreement.(3) When the parties sign the settlement agreement, it shall bethem respectively. and furnish a copy thereof to each of the parties.”Therefore, the police can use Section 73 of the Arbitration &Conciliation Act, 1996 to have two disputing parties come to a mutualsettlement.However, considering the nature of the polity and the social discoursein our country, a better recourse is to the Chapter VI-A of the LegalServices Authorities Act, 1987 (amended in 2002), which deals withpre-litigation conciliation.Lok AdalatLok Adalat is essentially an evaluation process in which a panel ofneutral Lawyers, Judges, and prominent citizens proposes a settlement84 January - March, 2013