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Alternative Disputes Resolution is an attempt to device a machinery which should be capable of providing an alternative to the conventional method of resolving disputes. An alternative means the privilege of choosing one of two things or courses offered at ones choice. It does not mean the choice of an alternative court but something which is an alternative to the court procedures or something which can operate as court annexed procedure. Human conflicts are inevitable. Disputes are equally inevitable. It is difficult to imagine a human society without conflicts of interests. Disputes must be resolved at minimum possible cost both in terms of money and time, so that more time and more resources are spared for constructive pursuits. For resolution of disputes there is a legal system in every human society. Every injured person is supposed to go to the courts for his redressal. All the legal system are trying to attain the legal ideal that wherever there is a wrong there must be a remedy so that nobody shall have to take law into his own hands. Courts have become overcrowded with litigants. According to an official report of the year 2000, there is a pendency of over two crore cases in our District Courts. Naturally, litigants have to face so much loss of time and money that at long last when a relief is obtained, it may not be worth the cost. Hence , began the search for alternatives to the conventional court system large number of quasi-judicial and administrative tribunals have been created for quicker reliefs. All these tribunals and forums are in way alternate methods of disputes redressal. But even such tribunals and forums have become overceowded with the result that they are not able to provide relief within good time. Many tribunals in service matters have been able to provide relief only when the aggrieved employee has already retiered from his position. Relief in terms of money which he may ultimately get may not be worth the service period lost. Consumer forums came into provide quick, effective and costless relief to buyers of goods and hires of services. Persons suffering from poor quality of merchandise and services in the market turned out to be so great in number that Consumer Redressal Forums and Commissions have proved to be inadequate to the volume of complaints. Heavy pendency causes long delays. In a large number of cases a delayed consumer remedy serves virtually no purpose. Thus official consumer remedies have also lost their swiftness. Furthermore, they are not able to provide any remedy for nonconsumer mstters. There thus remains the need of an alternative remedy which will not be bogged down by costs and delays. Perhaps the search will culminate in a remedy in which there is the minimum most role of official authorities and there is the maximum playoff a wholly private mechanism. As and when such a method of dispute resolution is discovered or devised, or if it has aslresdy been discovered or devised, it will be entitled to be given the name of Alternative Disputes Resolution. The institutional framework for providing ADR services is not yet fully developed. All that can be said is that, now alternative dispute resolution is rapidly developing its own national institutions, experience and theoretical and practicle development, and at the same time offering a simpler cross-border dispute resolution approach. Origin of Alternative Dispute Resolution; Alternative dispute resolution is today being increasingly acknowledged in the field of law as well as in the commercial sector. The very reasons for origin of Alternative Disputes Resolution are the tiresome processes of litigation, costs and inadequacy of the court system. It broke through the resistance of the vested interests because of its ability

to provide cheap and quick relief. In the last quarter of the previous century, there was the phenomenal growth in science and technology. It made a great impact on commercial life by increasing competition throughout the world. It also generated a concern for consumers for protection of their rights. The legal system did not give any response to the new atmosphere and problems of the commercial world. Thus alternative Dispute Resolution emerged as a powerful weapon for resolution of disputes at domestic as well as international level. It is developing as a separate and independent branch of legal discipline. It offers to resolve matters of litigants, whether in business causes or otherwise, who are not able to start any process of negotiation and reach any settlement. The significant features of this process of negotiation and reach any settlement. The significant features of this process are that it involves the intervention of a third person who works without following the pattern of the adversary system and whose final solution is not legally binding on the parties. Alternative Dispute Resolution has started gaining ground as against litigation and arbitration. There are many disputes which are simply beyond the reach of litigation and arbitration. There are many disputes which are simply beyond the reach of litigation, for example, divisions of family businesses or a dispute involving a family business and those concerned with it or working for it, or all matters involving joint interests. In such matters an approach has to be evolved which are specially devised machinery can also be described as Appropriate Dispute Resolution or Amicable Dispute resolution so as to lay stress upon its non-adversial objectives. Then there are disputes arising across national frontiers. In such cases it becomes very painful for business associations to achieve any satisfactory justice. For all disputes covering the field of private international law, Alternative Dispute Resolution becomes of special significance because otherwise problems of applicable laws would be there and there would also be the most difficult problem of enforcement. Even in commercial matters, regular civil courts have to decide cases only on the basis of evidence produced and arguments presented before it. The court has to give preference to evidence and arguments instead of thinking in terms of commercial sense or improved business relations. Definition and scope of Alternative Dispute Resolution Alternative Dispute Resolution is supposed to provide an alternative not only to civillitigation by adjudicatory procedure but includes also arbitration itself. The institution of arbitration came into being as a very useful alternative to litigation. But it is now being viewed as closer to litigation because it has to be in accordance with the statutory provisions and becomes virtually an adjudicatory process with all the formalities of the functioning of a court. A method of dispute resolution would be considered as a real alternative only if it posses, even if it is not wholly a consensual process. It may be worked by a neutral third person who may bridge the gap between the parties by bringing them together through a process of conciliation, mediation or negotiations. Nevertheless, arbitration has also been considered as an alternative to litigation and is geberally included in the study of all other alternatives. This is so because arbitration has been the mother source of other alternatives not only in substance but also in the procedural working of the alternative methods. This is so because arbitration has been the mother source of all other alternatives not only in substance but also in the procedural

working of the alternative methods. The principles and procedure of arbitration have influenced the growth of many of the ancillary and hybrid processes used in the alternative methods of dispute resolution. Alternative Dispute Resolution can be defined as a technique of dispute resolution through the intervention of a third party whose decision is not legally binding on the parties. It can also be describes as a mediation though mediation is only one of the modes of Alternative Dispute Resolution. The method is neither that of litigation nor that of arbitration. Alternative Dispute Resolution flourishes because it avoids rigidity and inflexibility which is inevitable in the litigation process apart from high lawyer and court fee and long delays. Alternative Dispute Resolution aims to provide the parties with cheap, speedy and less formalistic remedy to the aggrieved party. It aims at providing a remedy which is most appropriate in the circumstances if the casr. This makes alternative Dispute Resolution a viable substitution for arbitration or litigation.