Haryana State Legal Services Authority launched online Mediation across the State of Haryana on 19th October, 2020 by releasing Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) prepared for online mediation comprising of various steps required to be taken for successful mediation across the State.
Virtual platform for Mediation aims to grant relief to litigating parties by giving them opportunity to settle their disputes with the help of trained Mediators who help the parties to arrive at mutual agreed solution and bring the litigant to an end.
The Virtual platform for Mediation will be conducted in all the 22 Districts and 33 Sub Divisions of Haryana where parties will get connected with the Mediator Advocates through video conferencing and the whole mediation proceedings will be kept confidential.
There are total 283 Trained Advocate Mediators and 202 Judicial Mediators in Haryana. The Mediation & Conciliation Centres have been opened in all the Districts of Haryana.
HALSA is organizing regular 40 Hours and 20 Hours Mediation Training Programmes to train Mediators.
Pre-litigation Desk have been set up in all the Mediation Centers of Haryana to deal with matrimonial disputes, before they reach the Court. 14,023 cases were referred to these Desks and out of, 13,529 cases were settled from 2013 to September, 2020.
In 2019-2020, total 3,312 cases were settled through Mediation across the Haryana. This is not merely a figure of 3,312 cases, it is about 10,000 cases which may exclude appeals and allied litigation to be filed by the parties before the court in connection with their cases which settled through Mediation
Lordship Mrs. Daya Chaudhary inaugurated Virtual platform for Mediation and stated that one of the major activities of Legal Services Authorities is to provide free and competent legal aid to the weaker and marginalized sections of our society as per provisions of Section 12 to be read with Rule 19 of Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 as per their entitlements.
Lok Adalats are organized to ensure and to promote justice on the basis of equal opportunity for settlement of disputes through Virtual platform for Mediation & Conciliation. Purpose is also to hold awareness camps, seminars and other programmes through Panel Lawyers and PLVs.
They are also made aware about the socio-economic issues such as child marriage, bonded labour, dowry, human trafficking, drug addiction, cyber crime etc. People are taking benefits of Schemes started by HALSA.
She also shared that COVID-19 has affected the working of courts across the nation which led to great inconvenience to the parties/litigants in getting justice and settling of their cases through alternate redressal mechanisms such as Lok Adalats, Virtual platform for Mediation, Arbitrations etc.
