On September 15, 2023, the Central Government notified the Mediation Act, 2023 (‘Mediation Act’). Some of the salient features of the Mediation Act are as follows:

i.    Prescribes voluntary and mutual consented pre-litigation mediation between the parties for settlement of any dispute before filing any suit or proceedings of civil or commercial nature in any Court;

ii.   Specifies a 120-day timeline for completion of mediations, which may be extended by a further period of 60 days;

iii.  Mediated settlement agreement will be final, binding and enforceable in the same manner, as if it were a judgement or decree passed by the court;

iv.   Limited grounds for challenging a mediated settlement agreement, namely, fraud, corruption, impersonation and where the dispute and/or matter was not fit for mediation;

v.    Mediated settlement agreement is a confidential document subject to any disclosure requirements which may arise to meet the objectives of registration, enforcement or any challenge; and

vi.   Establishes Mediation Council of India to regulate mediators and mediation institutions.

On October 9, 2023, various provisions of the Mediation Act were brought into force by the Central Government, which inter alia, include provisions relating to: (i) non-applicability of the Mediation Act to the proceedings conducted by Lok Adalat and Permanent Lok Adalat (Section 26); (ii) Mediation Council of India (Section 31 to 38); (iii) Mediation Fund (Section 45 to 47); and (iv) other miscellaneous provisions such as definitions, power to make rules and regulations under the Mediation Act, power to remove difficulties in giving effect to the provisions of the Mediation Act, non-applicability to pending proceedings and transitionary provisions (Section 1, 3, 50 to 54, 56 to 57).