Data placed before the Rajya Sabha shows that while lakhs of commercial disputes have been routed through mandatory pre-institution mediation under the Commercial Courts Act, only a small fraction have actually been resolved.
In a written reply to a question by Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice disclosed that since the introduction of Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act in 2018, more than 5.6 lakh applications have been received for Pre-Institution Mediation and Settlement (PIMS), but settlements have been recorded in only a fraction of these cases.
According to the data placed before parliament, between July 2018 and September 2025, 5,65,676 applications were filed for pre-institution mediation in commercial disputes where no urgent interim relief was sought. However, most of these cases either did not progress to mediation or failed to culminate in settlement.
In 2024–25, for instance, only 877 cases were settled out of 59,568 applications received. The previous year, 2023–24, saw 1,139 settlements against 51,019 applications. A substantial proportion of applications were categorised as “non-starters”, indicating that parties did not proceed with mediation despite initiating the process.
The Ministry stated that alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms are party-autonomy driven and that parties often choose ad hoc mediation or private mediation institutions, for which the government does not maintain consolidated data.
When asked how many mediation cases exceeded the prescribed 180-day resolution period, the government said that no such data is maintained.
The reply also highlighted the scale of dispute resolution through Lok Adalats, which operate under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. Data maintained by the National Legal Services Authority shows that National Lok Adalats disposed of over 14.8 crore cases in 2025, up from 1.27 crore cases in 2021. State Lok Adalats and Permanent Lok Adalats also reported steadily increasing disposal figures over the last five years.
The Ministry further confirmed that the Arbitration Council of India - mandated under Part IA of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 following the 2019 amendments - has not yet been established. The reply did not specify reasons for the delay or provide a timeline for its constitution.
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