Kerala's Community Mediation Programme : A 'Nip In The Bud' Approach

'Nip in the bud' is an idiom which means: to stop, cease, or prevent something at the beginning or early phase, before it becomes too difficult or unmanageable. Pre Litigation mediation aims to stop the mess called litigation, many of which are not even worth starting. The Kerala State Legal Services Authority and Kerala State Mediation and Conciliation Centre have introduced a novel mediation mechanism which is named as Community Mediation Programme, which adopts this 'Nip in the bud' approach. The objective of this programme is to provide for mediation and settlement of conflicts in society at grass root level using the volunteers As per the programme, different social, religious, cultural groups and organizations like NSS, SNDP, Muslim Mahal, Christian Parishes, Residence Association, Flat owner's society, Kudumbasree etc, can nominate persons to act as community Mediation Volunteers. Maybe if some method could be found for certifying that an agreement has been freely entered into and for making it executable like a degree, mediation could become the most effective ADR", the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde had said earlier this month while speaking at the 3rd International Conference organized by Indian Council of Arbitration and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry at New Delhi Community Mediation Programme can be a perfect model of a pre-litigation mediation idea.