A PROJECT REPORT ON – “ONLINE DISPUE RESOLUTION IN INDIA”

MANIPAL UNIVERSITY JAIPUR

UNDER SUPERVISION OF:- SUBMITTED BY:-

Mr. SHANTANU MUKUL BAJAJ
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 151301052
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. Mukul Bajaj student of B.A.LL.B (Hons.), Seventh Semester, School of
Law, Manipal University Jaipur has completed the project work entitled “ online dispute resolution
in India”, under my supervision and guidance.
It is further certify that the candidate has made sincere efforts for the completion of the project
work.

SUPERVISOR NAME

(Mr.Shantanu)
Assistant Professor
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express deep sense of gratitude and indebtness to our teacher Mr. Shantanu under whose guidance
valuable suggestions, constant encouragement and kind supervision the present project was carried
out. I am also grateful to college and faculty of law for their feedback and for keeping us on
schedule.
I also wish my sincere thanks to my friends who helped directly or indirectly by giving their
valuable suggestions.

Mukul Bajaj
Contents
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 5
SOME INSIGHTS OVER ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION ................................................... 6
ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION SERVICES IN INDIA ......................................................... 7
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................... 11
INTRODUCTION

Disputes resolution is a tricky affair for all stakeholders including courts, government, companies,
individuals, international organisations, etc. This is more so where conflict of law is involved as
different countries may have different laws for dispute resolution. As a result international
commercial disputes faced many difficulties for their resolutions in the early days. To reduce the
hardships of such disputes, countries adopted a model code of conduct that was incorporated in
their respective domestic laws. The advent of harmonised alternative dispute resolution (ADR)
methods like arbitration and mediation is a result of such international codification.
For instance, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) has
adopted the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration in 1985. The
UNCITRAL has also adopted the UNCITRAL Conciliation Rules in 1980. The General Assembly
of the United Nations has recommended the use of the said Model Law and Rules in cases where
a dispute arises in the context of international commercial relations and the parties seek an
amicable settlement of that dispute by recourse to conciliation.
India has also incorporated these uniform principles of alternative dispute resolution in the
Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 that was amended in the year 2015. The Arbitration Act
provides for alternative dispute resolution mechanisms like arbitration, conciliations etc for
national and international stakeholders.
Nevertheless, the Arbitration Act has still not considered the use of information and
communication technologies (ICT) for dispute resolution in the desired manner.
SOME INSIGHTS OVER ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION

(1) Techno Legal Norms: The year 2017 would see formulation of techno legal norms by
Indian government, arbitral institutions and ODR institutions. Laws like Information Technology
Act, 2000 (IT Act 2000), Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996, etc would see further amendments
in the year 2017 to accommodate online dispute resolution (ODR) and cyber arbitration in India.
TLCEODRI is already in the process of making public its techno legal rules and regulations for
ODR services and cyber arbitration in India. In short, a basic level legal framework would be put
in place in the year 2017 for ODR and cyber arbitration.
(2) PPP Based ODR Models: Ind0ian government would encourage public private
partnership (PPP) based ODR and cyber arbitration models in the year 2017. This is natural as
Indian government is yet to brace ODR and cyber arbitration.
(3) Consolidation Of ODR Segment: Consolidation of ODR and cyber arbitration
industry would also take place in the year 2017. There are some cyber arbitration and dispute
resolution players working in India for some time but actual working models are still missing.
The startups and entrepreneurship trends of India 2017 have already predicted increased use
of ODR and e-courts in India in 2017.
(4) Digital Disputes: Indian government’s focus upon digital projects like digital India, e-
governance, etc would increase digital disputes in the year 2017. As on the date, neither the
regulatory framework nor the online dispute resolution infrastructure is in place to tackle such high
number of digital disputes. Indian government is working on these fronts, and till the end of 2017
we may see some positive developments on these fronts.
(5) Consumer Protection In Cyberspace: Consumer protection in cyberspace would be
one of the top priorities of Indian government in 2017. The focus would be upon cyber arbitration
and online dispute resolution of various consumer disputes. A time bound dispute resolution
mechanism would be put in place by Indian government in 2017. Even consumer courts/forums
would be accessible through online means in 2017 and aggrieved consumers can file their
complaints from any part of India. However, this model would not be a fully fledged one but would
consist of first stage of dispute resolution only.
(6) E-Commerce Disputes: The year 2017 would see a big growth in use of ODR for
resolution of e-commerce disputes in India. No smart e-commerce player would be interested
in keeping public grievances and disputes pending and unresolved. Further, e-commerce
companies could also not afford negative reviews that are generated due to unresolved consumer
disputes. Cyber arbitration and ODR would be of tremendous help to such e-commerce players,
dissatisfied customers, etc.
(7) International Commercial Arbitration: International commercial arbitration
can be the biggest winner by using cyber arbitration and ODR in India. This is more so on the
fields of cross border technology transactions and cross border e-commerce transactions.
TLCEODRI has been working in this direction for the past few years and international e-commerce
and technology companies can have a firsthand experience of the same here. Interested national
and international stakeholders can contact us in this regard and avail the techno legal cyber
arbitration and ODR services of TLCEODRI.

ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION SERVICES IN INDIA

Disputes are common world over and their effective and timely redressal is a big challenge for
governments around the world. In the Indian context, there is a massive backlog of cases that is
crippling the judicial system of India. Establishment of e-courts in India can help reducing such
backlog of cases. However, it is not easy to establish e-courts as mere computerisation of court
proceedings and records would not help in establishment of a full fledged e-court.
It is comparatively easier to use online dispute resolution (ODR) for resolving various sorts of
disputes especially those pertaining to civil nature, e-commerce disputes etc. ODR in India is
still evolving as Indian government is still hesitant to use the same. Indian government has
announced promising initiatives like digital India but the actual implementation of these initiatives
is a big challenge. Mere announcement without any implementation is of no use.
As far as ODR is concerned, the techno legal centre of excellence for online dispute resolution in
India (TLCEODRI) has launched a beta version of ODR platform that can be used for dispute
resolution by national and international stakeholders alike. This is possible as the test platform is
guided by the digital India principles and mere access of Internet would be sufficient to resolve
the disputes from across the world.
The parties intended to be covered by the present and future techno legal initiatives of Perry4Law
Organisation (P4LO) and TLCEODRI include national and international stakeholders like
Central/State Governments, Foreign Governments, Indian companies, multi national companies
(MNCs), Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), individuals, e-commerce websites, etc. We hope that
all stakeholders would find this beta version initiative worth trying and making the same part of
their business ventures and public dealings. To test the same, please create a ticket as per the
category in which you fall.
Further, a special service of conducting Online Arbitration or Cyber Arbitration is also there where
parties to the dispute can submit their disputes to the platforms of P4LO or TLCEODRI. The
parties to the dispute must have incorporated the sample clause for getting their disputes resolved
through P4LO or TLCEODRI while entering into an agreement/contract. Interested stakeholders
may also contact us for drafting of such agreements/contracts where such ODR clause would be
part of the same. This way parties need not to go to the courts and they can settle their disputes
amicably, expeditiously and in an economical manner.
Once the Arbitrator/Arbitration Tribunal is appointed, the appointed Arbitrator/Arbitration
Tribunal of P4LO or TLCEODRI would then proceed to deal with the dispute and pass a binding
Arbitration award by which the parties to the dispute would be legally bound. The rules,
procedures, list of panelists, etc would be uploaded on various ODR platforms of P4LO and
TLCEODRI very soon.
For those who have already tried the conciliation efforts at this beta version platform and have
failed to get a result, there is also an option to send a legal notice through the platform. This,
obviously, is totally different from the Online Arbitration or Cyber Arbitration option before the
P4LO or TLCEODRI as the latter proceedings would be governed by a separate procedure and
notice of initiation of arbitration proceedings would be send to the parties to the arbitration instead
of a legal notice. The purpose of a legal notice is to try to settle the dispute through the legal notice
itself and if that fails, the matter can be taken up before the regular courts/tribunals. Legal notices
are also effective where there is no ODR clause that attaches the parties to the disputes to the
services of P4LO or TLCEODRI. In such a case there is no other option left but to send a legal
notice as a last attempt to resolve the dispute.
P4LO and TLCEODRI would soon launch many more techno legal dispute resolution and e-courts
related projects that would help national and international stakeholders alike. They would be full
fledged and tested platforms that could be readily relied upon by various stakeholders. We would
share information about the final initiatives very soon.
E-commerce is growing at a fast speed in India as India is seen as a lucrative and profitable market
for e-commerce business. However, e-commerce laws in India are still not clear to most of the
e-commerce entrepreneurs. As a result most of the e-commerce websites are not following the
laws of India and are inadvertently violating the laws of India. Regulatory authorities of India have
started questioning the operations of e-commerce websites of India and many of them are facing
potential legal actions.
The tussle is not merely between the regulatory authorities and e-commerce website owners but it
also extends to disputes between e-commerce websites and their consumers. Most of the
consumers are not aware about their digital rights while dealing with such e-commerce companies
and websites. At the same time there is lack of forums and dispute resolutions platforms for digital
consumers in India where they can agitate their claims. In short, e-commerce dispute resolution
in India is still to be managed by Indian Government.
We at Perry4Law Organisation (P4LO) believe that online dispute resolution (ODR) can be
effectively used in India to manage many digital and non digital disputes, including for e-
commerce purposes. To make ODR a success in India, Techno Legal Centre of Excellence for
Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) in India (TLCEODRI) has been providing its techno legal
ODR services to national and international stakeholders.
TLCEODRI has realised that ODR in India has failed to materialised due to lack of techno legal
expertise on the one hand and absence of public awareness on the other. This is the reason why we
have started an online dispute resolution (ODR) platform in India for national and
international stakeholders where techno legal disputes can be resolved in an online environment.
This platform has twin objectives to meet. The first is to develop techno legal skills and trainings
for ODR in India and abroad. This objective is fulfilled through the initiative titled ODR
Trainings and Skills Development in India by TLCEODRI. The second objective is to spread
public awareness about ODR in India and abroad. This objective is fulfilled by spreading
information and providing guidance about ODR through our social media platforms. Please see
our Twitter accounts named ODR India and TLCEODRI and the first ODR Social Media and
Social Networking Platform of TLCEODRI for updates and information about ODR. Please see
the ODR Discussion Forum of TLCEODRI for more details about this project.
We are also in the process of introducing new techno legal features so that ODR platform of
TLCEODRI can provide the most comprehensive and holistic techno legal ODR services at a
single website. Meanwhile national and international stakeholders like e-commerce websites,
government departments, international agencies, national and international companies, multi
national companies (MNCs), individuals, etc can register with us to avail our services by sending
an e-mail at our contact point.
We would share more information about enrollment by e-commerce companies for dispute
resolution services of TLCEODRI at our ODR Discussion Forum very shortly
BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987

2. Page 11,Indian Council of Arbitration, Vol. XXXXX No. 3, Arbitration & Conciliation
Law , Oct. – Dec. 2001
3. Page 11,Indian Council of Arbitration, Vol. XXXXX No. 3, Arbitration & Conciliation
Law , Oct. – Dec. 2001
Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996
4. http://odrindia.in/