Akhilesh Srivastava’s Part in Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Portal

With more and more developmental works happening across India, this situation is inviting progress, but, at times, accompanied with problems. Such problems of more of socio-economic in nature. Bypassing such issues won’t be a good move. So, to clear the decks, there has to be an efficient machinery, which would be able to complement the developmental efforts by ensuring social and economic justice of the needy. The existing legal system has been burdened with crores of cases and loads of litigations, which clearly shows that it is running out of capacity and was unable to adapt and admit legal issues. And, justice delayed is lost. Against this backdrop, the government of India has decided to explore a tech-based solution to support the legal machinery. The government solicited the Ministry of Law and Justice to find out a solution for the scenario, which has been hindering progress. Accordingly, the ministry, with the support of several other parties, has come up with an Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) portal. Experts term this move by the GoI as an extension to the Digital India program, which is formulated to democratise the advantages of digital technologies. Mr Akhilesh Srivastava, who is CGM of Highway operations and IT division in NHAI, is one of the key persons involved in the development of ODR portal.

Through ODR portal, the debating parties or litigants can straightforwardly approach the lawful specialists. This portal could reduce the litigation costs, which would be incurred by the people in the course of seeking justice. If the ODR portal would begin to operationalise in its full limit, justice would be delivered in a fast manner. Consequently, using the ODR portal, the prosecutors and the contenders can expect time-bound settlement of the issues. Starting from enlisting a case to hearing a case, everything will get easy with the ODR portal. The negative issues, which are deep rooted in the Indian legal framework, could be invalidated with this much-anticipated ODR portal.

The Ministry of Law and Justice, which has been entrusted with the improvement of ODR portal, asked Construction Industry Arbitration Council (CIAC) to partner with it in creating ODR portal. The Construction Industry Arbitration Council (CIAC) was set up under Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC) and Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). The CIAC constituted a team to come up with suggestions and development pertaining to the ODR portal.

The team, which consists Mr Akhilesh Srivastava, CGM (IT and Highways errands) of NHAI and Dr P.R.Swarup, Director General of CIDC, was setup under the chairmanship of Mr Arijit Pasayal, a resigned judge. This team suggested changes in assignment of ODR portal. It proposed to include the young and well-informed experts in this undertaking of creating ODR portal and its operation. And, the team hoped that this portal would open new opportunities for millions of tech-savvy arbitrators.

If India could realise the potential of ODR portal in the coming years, then nothing stops India’s infrastructural progress, which has been facing some legal issues in the process of Land Acquisition, Compensation, and Rehabilitation. Legal experts and economists have welcomed this ODR portal initiative and termed it as a great and novel initiative.

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Harika Lingamaneni is a passionate content writer, where she has almost 6 years of experience in article writing. she is currently working on an article about Indian Highways.