Gandhian Concept Of Justice And ADR

May. 02, 2020 • Architi Batra

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is the procedure for settling disputes without litigation, such as arbitration, mediation, or negotiation.

CONCEPT OF JUSTICE:-

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (M. K. Gandhi) was one the great leader had an experience of a presence of justice for his times, as well as for the world today. He also had a view that there must be a primary method to attain a just society where everyone’s wellbeing is ensured—that is, “holding on to truth” (satyagraha) and on the basis of this, the next principle of non-violence (ahimsa) will be followed. An incident from his life-- as a young lawyer he ensured that a civil dispute is settled amicably between the parties, which included his first client in South Africa-- reflect upon his commitment towards resorting to extra-judicial mechanisms to arrive at "justice". The Gandhian mediators would aspire at both fostering empowerments of the disputing parties and recognition between opponents.

(1)As the Modern world is full of multidimensional and multidisciplinary conflicts having deadly tools such as the physical and psychological violent tools. The panacea for conflict resolution requires revivalist research approach in the context of the philosophy of Mahatma in a conflict situation, as per his philosophy conflict starts in the mind of an individual and physical outburst is the only subsequent expression of this conflict.

(A) Administration of Justice:

A great Jurist remarked, “Justice should not be done it should be seen to be done” based on Gandhi’s suggestion to use regional languages in the administration of justice.

Gandhi believed in the administration of justice from the grass-root level. Hence he suggested the “panchayat system”. Mahatma Gandhi was also in the favor of alternative dispute resolution systems and suggested that civil matters should be resolved through compromise between the parties whether by the help of others or not. We adopted the concept of Lok Adalat based on this philosophical free and fair compromise procedure.

(B) Democracy:

Mahatma Gandhi said that the democratic government must give importance to the public opinion and shall run as per the will and wish of the people but for the smooth and healthy functioning of democracy, people must have awareness of their rights and duties. Hence people must be educated first to preserve and understand democracy. The Present-day scenario clearly shows that due to illiteracy, people are exploited at all the levels of life and made a joke about it.

(C) Separation of Power:

Mahatma Gandhi strongly believed and supported the separation of power. And hence, we saw the Separation of three pillars of parliament. As per Gandhi Ji, laws are nothing but codified ethics.

(D) Rights and Duties:

Mahatma Gandhi said that the charter of duties is much more important than the charter of rights. Like for example: if anyone follows his duty, the right of others will automatically be followed. But, we have made fundamental rights enforceable while fundamental duties are not enforceable.

(E) Social Justice:

Mahatma Gandhi said that, let the people live their lives as per their wish and will until or unless they violate the rights of others. Whenever there will be a conflict between private interest and public interest, public or social interest shall always prevail over the private interest. He also upheld the right to freedom of speech and expression but, Untouchability, violence, crimes, etc can’t be control by making the laws only.

(F) Law Abidance:

Mahatma Gandhi always opinions and preached that one has to respect the law. But, Law must be reasonable, fair, and just and if the law is unjust, unreasonable, or unfair then the people shall not follow such law. Many of the times, he favored the civil disobedience and opposed the criminal disobedience.

(G) Legal Profession:

Mahatma Gandhi had different views about the lawyers that were very much social than professional that’s why he treated lawyer as a mediator than the conductor of legal proceedings. As per his suggestions, it is the duty of the Lawyers to not help in provides legal justice but social-economic and political justice also.

(H) Protection of animals:

Gandhi promoted cow and other animal protection because of a long time religious practice of Hindu tradition because the cow is taken as the symbol of the entire ‘sub-human world which signifies a fraternity between the man and the beast and they also have the right of lives.

(I) Upliftment of the oppressed Section:

Mahatma Gandhi worked a lot for the upliftment of the oppressed Society & also fought against the untouchability by popularizing the term Harijan which means the “God’s people” for the communities, which were outside the privileges of the caste system or the oppressed section of the society.

Concept of ADR(2):-

Some of the Great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln, who were the lawyers first, advocated and supported the culture of settlement. They also advised the people to settle their matters instead of litigating. It has undergone a phenomenal metamorphosis, growing from the stage of village elders sitting under a banyan or Neem tree and resolving the disputes to the stage of gaining a statutory recognition.

He favored the ADR system & the use of regional language courts. Mahatma Gandhi’s thoughts shall be included in our education system from the primary level to the postgraduate level and in our legal education, Gandhi Ji must be studied as a great jurist. Many of the ideas in Gandhian Satyagraha is related to modern conflict transformation.

LEGISLATIONS OF ADR IN INDIA:

Code of Civil Procedure
Indian Arbitration Act, 1899:
Arbitration (Protocol and Convention) Act 1937:
The Arbitration Act of 1940:
Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996:

MODES OF ADR IN INDIA:

Arbitration
Mediation
Conciliation
Negotiation
Lok Adalat

I realized that the true fiction of a lawyer was to unite parties… A large part of my time during the 20 years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing out a private compromise of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing thereby- not even money, certainly not my soul.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

[The author, Shivam Sharma is a fourth-year law student at IME Law College, Delhi]

Disclaimer: This article is an original submission of the Author. Niti Manthan does not hold any liability arising out of this article. Kindly refer to our Terms of use or write to us in case of any concerns.

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