How To Enroll As A Panelist For ODR Portal Of Resolve Without Litigation (RWL)

Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) is an area that is still not fully accepted and utilised world over. As far as India is concerned, ODR processes and systems are not only absent but they receive hostile treatment from Indian government and its agencies/departments. Indian government talk about making India a hub for global online companies and portals but at the same time is killing every possible technology driven project that is putting India on the world map. Naturally, we have no world class Indian company or technology project despite the fact that we introduced ODR in India in 2004.

Our journey for ODR took a decisive turn in 2010 onwards when we launched techno legal ODR portals, public awareness blogs and ODR training portal. However, as the awareness about ODR has been low and Indian government is not inclined to use the advantage of already existing projects of PTLB and Resolve Without Litigation (RWL), ODR remained a low priority for India.

But we at RWL have decided that in the year 2019 we would make India a hub for ODR irrespective of Indian government’s lack of support and active opposition. As our activities are increasing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) stakeholders have started approaching us for colloboration and other professional alliances. National and international stakeholders are also approaching us to get their disputes resolved using our Pro Bono ODR Portal. Every dispute is of top priority to us and that is why we have drafted a Guide so that national and international stakeholders can start their dispute resolution process in just under 5 minute time.

We are not aiming for something that is basic as with 15 years of active experience that would not be the right strategy. We at RWL intend to make India a hub for Institutionalised Arbitration and Institutionalised ODR destination. We are currently working in this field and that is why we are not in a position to respond back to individual partnership offers, investments and angel investment offers, empanelment requests, etc.

We are in receipt of these communications and please note that all these communications have been put in file in order in which they have been received. We take every single communication with us very seriously. We do not neglect and would never ignore these precious offers and communications. We request national and international stakeholders to please bear with us till we come up with individual and customised replies to all the communications received by us.

RWL is currently in talks with national and international organisations to facilitate and encourage use of technology dispute resolutions and ODR in India and world wide. RWL is looking forward for active national and international collaborations in this regard. Interested national and international organisations may contact us with their proposals in this regard. As we do not wish to miss even a single communication, we request the stakeholders to contact us simultaneously at our Twitter handles at @RWLIndia, @_PTLB, @DigitalIndiaLaw, Etc.

As the empanelment requests are pouring in great numbers and we cannot respond back individually to each such request, we have written this article as a guidance and compliance note. All empanellment requests would be entertained only if they comply with the requirements mentioned in this article.

Arbitrators, Lawyers, Mediators, Conciliators, ODR experts, Neutrals, etc that wish to work in association with PTLB may empanel with it. Interested individuals must meet the prescribed procedure in order to be empanelled with PTLB.

A minimum five years experience in arbitration matters is required to be empanelled with PTLB. The empanelment would be for minimum of one year (1) and maximum of five (5) years. The empanelment may be renewed at the discretion of PTLB and RWL. The requisite Performa for Individuals can be downloaded from “Here” (Doc). The Firms, Companies, Institutions, etc can download the Performa from “Here” (Doc).

PTLB and RWL have the sole discretion to accept or reject the empanelment requests. It would be better if applicants seek an opinion of PTLB or RWL in this regard well in advance through an e-mail. Please do not remit any fees or money till a positive confirmation is given by PTLB Or RWL for the possible inclusion of the applicant as a panelist. Applicants are strongly advised to go through the “Empanelment Procedures” before applying.

We hope this article would be helpful to all national and international ADR/ODR professionals who are interested in joining our portal and ODR services.

Please note that we maintain a “Seniority List” of our Panelists based on the first year of enrollment with us. We may only be able to accomodate limited number of Panelists for our present RWL project. We would close the empanellment procedure once required number of Panelists are enrolled. Senior Panelists have certain advantages as compared to junior members that would be discussed by us in our subsequent posts.

We welcome all who are eligible to join our portal and wish all the best to those who may be eligible in future as no ODR professional would be left by us ultimately. We would accomodate them in another ODR project of PTLB in future.

Thanks for your interest in our ODR projects.

Source: RWL India Blog.

Resolve Without Litigation (RWL) Has Rejuvenated Its ODR Discussion Forum

We first discussed about online dispute resolution (ODR) in 2004 and ironically it was an international platform where we shared our views. That is because in 2004 ODR was not known in India except among a very limited number of people.

We waited up to 2010 and the position remained same. That is the year when PTLB launched a Blog titled Techno Legal Online Dispute Resolution Services outlining our unique and exclusive techno legal ODR services. We managed this service through the website of Perry4Law and simultaneously opened the ODR blog to spread awareness about ODR in India.

In 2012 we launched a dedicated website on online dispute resolution (ODR) in India and since then we have launched many ODR projects each with different objective and purpose. We also launched India’s exclusive ODR discussion forum in 2012 and we have been continuously updating it from time to time. In the latest initiative, we have completely rejuvenated the ODR discussion forum.

However, the moment it was updated and rejuvenated we were flooded with spam accounts. First we disabled self registration process for our forum and made the registration subject to administrator’s approval. But the spam accounts kept on increasing and even if they were subject to our approval they kept on clogging our resources. After much deliberation, we completely disabled registration process and now registration at our forum is based on “invitation” or “request” basis.

We understand that this would make the forum unavailable to general public but we are preparing for the larger event that would make India a hub for institutionalised arbitration and institutionalised ODR destination. We apologise for this inconvenience but we welcome national and international stakeholders working in the field of ODR to register at our forum. They can contact us at this blog or at Twitter handles of @_PTLB, @RWLIndia, @DigitalIndiaLaw, etc.

If you are an ODR expert empanelled at the portal of RWL, you can request for your account registration at ODR forum of RWL while submitting your empanelment application.

To know what type of discussion we would have on the ODR forum, please see the Guide that we have created for our users that they can use to get justice within 2-5 minutes of their time.

As we have a target of making India a hub for international commercial arbitration, institutionalised arbitration, ADR and ODR training, institutionalised ODR leader, etc, we intend to work very seriously and very hard on the forum and other portals. If you are following our tweets at Twitter, you can get all the information that can be really beneficial for you and your organisation.

With this article we are now working to fill the ODR forum with information that would be unique and of tremendous value to national and international stakeholders.

Thanks for your patience and time.

Source: RWL India Blog.

Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) For E-Commerce Disputes In India

 

E-commerce in India  is still in infancy stage. Although many e-commerce companies have tried their luck in India but almost all of them suffer from serious limitations. Indian e-commerce companies lack clear policies and they often force unconstitutional and Orwellian technologies like Aadhaar upon Indian citizens to appease Indian government. We at PTLB Projects have been warning against such unethical behaviour of Indian e-commerce and digital payment industry but they cannot see beyond a limited sphere. As a result most of the entrepreneurship and e-commerce venture ended up sooner than was expected. 

India is not a place to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. Even ease of doing business is not the priority of Indian government. There is no culture of a robust, timely and effective dispute resolution mechanism in India. We at Resolve Without Litigation (RWL) have continued our techno legal research and projects regarding ODR that we started in 2004. But even  in 2019, Indian government does not have the techno legal acumen to understand importance and uses of ODR in India. 

This is expected from government but what is not expected and accepted from e-commerce industry is to follow the unethical and illegal demands of Indian government to force illegal technologies like Aadhaar. As Indian e-commerce industry is mostly controlled by either foreign stakeholders or Indian government, there is little that can be expected from it. Obviously, Indian e-commerce companies are also not using ODR for resolution of their disputes as customer satisfaction and dispute resolution is never there priorities. 

But we can expect that foreign e-commerce companies or foreign stakeholders controlling Indian e-commerce industry would be smart enough to use ODR for dispute resolution in India when the industry would consolidate very soon. For such smart e-commerce players, we have launched a dedicated ODR portal that can be used to resolve all e-commerce disputes in India. They can avoid costly and time consuming litigation procedures by simply signing an ODR Clause of RWL. Once the ODR Clause of RWL is incorporated into the terms and conditions of these e-commerce players and other online service providers, all consumer disputes would be resolved by us using our ODR portal. 

National and international stakeholders can get a feel of our platform by using the pro bono portal of RWL. E-commerce companies, banks, digital payment providers, etc can use the pro bono portal for first few disputes and once they are comfortable they can shift to the professional portal of RWL. We do not use Aadhaar and we would never compromise with your privacy, data and other information. So not only stakeholders are saving in terms of money and time but also they have surety that their confidential information would not be misused. 

We are currently receiving many offers for funding and we appreciate all such offers. Other financers who are looking to invest in the ever growing techno legal dispute resolution projects of PTLB are also welcome. 

We are also open to various forms of collaborations with like minded national and international stakeholders. If you have any proposal, please contact us and we would love to have you as a valuable partner. 

Once the May 2019 elections of India are over, we would rejuvenate our ODR projects and would come up with new features and additions that would be beneficial to all stakeholders. 

Exclusive Techno Legal Institutional ODR Project Of The World By PTLB

Online dispute resolution (ODR) is a comparatively new field though we at Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) started working upon the same in 2004. Till 2010 we established ODR research and training centre and launched our own ODR portal. We launched many ODR projects with different perspective and purposes. We started these projects at our main website of Perry4Law. 

In 2012 we launched dedicated websites for ODR and e-courts respectively. We launched Techno Legal Centre of Excellence for Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) in India (TLCEODRI) in 2012. We also launched Resolve Without Litigation (RWL) project in 2015. We launched two dedicated portals for ODR too.

The first one is a pro bono portal that is training national and international stakeholders to use ODR for resolution of their present and future disputes. The second one is a professional ODR portal that is meant for our clients and those who are well versed with the use of ODR. 

However, we found that Indian government is neither technologically savvy nor it has the political will to implement ODR project in India. We at PTLB gave India an advantage in the ODR field but neither Congress nor BJP took interest in the same. On the contrary, we faced discouragement from government and departments like CGPDTM. All efforts of Indian government and its department(s) are to stiffle the growth of ODR in India rather than developing it. Even the National Litigation Policy of India (NLPI) and New Delhi International Arbitration Centre Ordinance, 2019 failed on the front of ODR. 

But other countries recognised the significance of this field and they have started working in this field. We introduced ODR in India in 2005 but till April 2019 neither Congress nor BJP showed any interest. Both wasted 14 years and India is now lagging behind in ODR field despite having 14 years lead. 

We can only hope that the new government that would come to power after May 2019 would be sensible enough to take advantage of our Techno Legal ODR expertise and projects. But we cannot take the risk and so PTLB decided to develpo ODR capabilities and expertise in India on its own. We received many funding proposal and we are presently analysing them. We appreciate these offers and would love to explore one or two of them having minimum strings attached. 

As we have already established fully functional ODR portals for almost a decade, now it is time to make India a hub for Institutional ODR and International ODR destination. That is why we revived this Blog that was started in 2010 and did some changes to it. We have changed the theme of this Blog and if due to that our readers find any mistake or discrepancy, we apologise in advance. 

As both RWL India and TLCEODRI have differnt mandates, we needed a dedicated Social Media account to share our views and announcements with national and international stakeholders. We have launched the ODR Institute Twitter handle for this purpose. The purpose of this handle is to share details about our projects that are working to establish Institutional ODR in India. 

Our existing ODR projects are sufficient to make India a destination for ODR but we have decided to launch a dedicated Institutional ODR portal. Till the same is established, national and international stakeholders can use our existing portals. We would launch the same after July 2019 once we have sufficient funding in this regard from national and international fund providers. 

The New Delhi International Arbitration Centre Ordinance, 2019

The New Delhi International Arbitration Centre Ordinance, 2019 was promulgated by President of India on March 2, 2019. Among other things, It seeks to establish an independent and autonomous regime for institutionalised arbitration in India. Indian government is planning to make the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre (NDIAC) a hub for institutional arbitration in India. The government has also decided to declare NDIAC to be an institution of national importance.

Previously, the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre Bill, 2018 was passed by Lok Sabha on 04-01-2019. However, the Bill is yet to be passed by the Rajya Sabha and it will lapse with the dissolution of the current Lok Sabha/Parliament.

As the Parliament of India is currently not in sessions, the President of India was satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary for him to take immediate action. By exercising the powers vested in him by Article 123(1) of Constitution of India, the President deemed it fit to promulgate the ordinance.

As the Ordinance also mandated transfer of assets of International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ICADR) to NDIAC, a notification to this effect was issued by the central government. But a case was filed before the Delhi High Court challenging that notification. The Delhi High Court stayed the notification by central government for transfer of assets in favour of NDIAC for the time being and asked the central government to file its response. However, in all probability the Ordinance would remain valid and would become a law once the new Parliament is constituted.

We at Resolve Without Litigation (RWL) welcome this Ordinance as it is the first step to make India a premier destination for institutional arbitration and institutional ODR. However, much has to be done as stakeholders in India are not only slow in taking necessary steps but they are also averse to adoption of technology for dispute resolution purposes.

Some of the salient features of the Ordinance are:

(1) NDIAC has been constituted as a body corporate with similar rights and liabilities as a body corporate,

(2) NDIAC has been declared as an institution of national importance.

(3) The head office of NDIAC shall be at New Delhi and it may, with prior approval of Central Government, establish branches at other places in India and abroad,

(4) All possible moveable and immovable properties, including proprietary rights therein, of ICADR shall be transferred to NDIAC. Delhi High Court is presently seized with a litigation in this regard between ICADR  and Central Government,

(5) The objects of NDIAC are:

(a) To bring targeted reforms to develop itself as a flagship institution for conducting international and domestic arbitration

(b) To provide facilities and administrative assistance for conciliation mediation and arbitral proceedings;

(c) To maintain panels of accredited arbitrators, conciliators and mediators both at national and international level or specialists such as surveyors and investigators;

(d) To facilitate conducting of international and domestic arbitrations and conciliation in the most professional manner;

(e) To provide cost effective and timely services for the conduct of arbitrations and conciliations at Domestic and International level;

(f) To promote studies in the field of alternative dispute resolution and related matters, and to promote reforms in the system of settlement of disputes;

(g) To co-operate with other societies, institutions and organisations, national or international for promoting alternative dispute resolution, etc.

(6) NDIAC may constitute such committees as may be considered necessary to administer various aspects of its functions,

(7) There shall be a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NDIAC who shall be responsible for day-to-day administration of the Centre,

(8) The NDIAC shall establish a Chamber of Arbitration which shall empanel the Arbitrators and also scrutinise the applications for admission in the panel of reputed arbitrators to maintain a permanent panel of arbitrators,

(9) The NDIAC may establish an Arbitration Academy to train the Arbitrators, to conduct research in ADR and allied fields, to give suggestions for achieving the objectives of the Ordinance, etc,

These are good provisions but they are still cautious in nature. Indian government is still not confident that it can establish world class online dispute resolution (ODR) institutions in India. The main focus of the Ordinance is to make traditional Arbitration more effective and unless the NDIAC is tech oriented, this would remain the situation says Praveen Dalal.

ICADR failed for this reason and even NDIAC may face similar fate unless government is pro active and start using techno legal expertise of platforms like Resolve Without Litigation (RWL).

Source: RWL India Blog.