This is the first initiative of its kind in the country that has been taken by the Delhi Government by establishing Delhi Dispute Resolution Society (Delhi Vivad Samadhan Samiti) as a joint venture with Delhi High Court. We all know that the litigation in the courts has increased manifold and is constantly increasing. It is primarily because of large number of new legislations which are being enacted to meet the changing social needs of the Society; increase in the awareness of the public and growing globalization and liberalization. To have their grievances readdressed through the courts of law is the basic right of citizens and that can not be denied or curtailed. Even otherwise, it is the responsibility of all the three organs of the State namely; Legislature, Executive and Judiciary to ensure equal and affordable and durable justice to the public.

In addition to above factors, it is also noticed that there are a large number of petty and trivial nature of cases which are pending in the courts and are increasingly being filed. These small and trivial nature of cases are also responsible for blocking the judicial system and thereby creating obstacle in the administration of justice. Infact these are the cases which need not to have to go to the courts and could be settled or resolved amicably outside the courts.

With the increase in population and resultant increase in the litigation, any amount of increase of number of courts or the infrastructure will not be able to effectively handle the present litigation system. Unfortunately we do not have any mechanism or system of resolution of disputes outside the courts. It is in this scenario that resort to alternative methods of disputes is indispensable in a country like ours.
The government being equally concerned about its responsibility and also the alarming situation of the explosion of cases in the courts resulting in gradual loss of confidence in the system of the public has thought of to develop a mechanism of resolution of some type of disputes without resorting to the court or the police. It is primarily to control further increase of the litigation in the courts and to develop a sustained and durable mechanism of resolution of disputes that the Society in the name of Delhi Dispute Resolution Society (Delhi Vivad Samadhan Samiti) has been established by the Government. With this, the Government has institutionalized the concept of resolution of disputes through alternative and appropriate methods. These alternative methods will include settlement of some types of disputes through the Mediation Centers to be established by the Society in all the districts in Delhi. The primary focus of the Society is on the community mediation, consumer affairs disputes, inter-departmental cases, etc. The breadth of services to be provided is as under