The Centre has formally established India's mediation regulator through the Mediation Council of India (MCI), notified by the Union law and justice ministry on 27 August 2026. According to the latest notification, the MCI is a statutory body envisaged under the Mediation Act, 2023, comprising a chairperson and other members appointed in accordance with the Act. The regulatory body's mandate includes regulating mediation service providers and mediators, laying down standards, accrediting mediation institutes, and promoting and developing mediation in India. As per the latest reports, the Council will operate as a statutory body under Section 31(1) of the Act, with powers to manage property and enter into contracts, headquartered in Delhi. Under the Mediation Act, 2023, the Council will function as a body corporate with perpetual succession and the power to acquire, hold and dispose of property, enter into contracts, and sue or be sued in its own name.
While the notification establishes the institutional framework, significant implementation steps remain. As reported by Mint, Krunal Modi, founding member and chief of staff at Presolv360, noted that the notification gives effect to an important part of the Mediation Act, 2023 vision but several important steps still need to come, including appointment of council members and operationalisation of various provisions under the Act. The 27 August notification contains only a single provision formally establishing the MCI in New Delhi, with the law ministry having earlier notified provisions concerning member qualifications in 2023. The establishment of this Council is expected to transform how mediation is conducted and regulated in India moving forward.
India's judicial backlog provides the primary motivation for expanding alternatives to litigation. According to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), district courts had 32.6 million pending civil and criminal cases, with the lack of counsels cited as the primary reason for delays. High courts had another 2.7 million pending cases, while the Supreme Court had 26,953 pending matters. As reported by Mint, past reports by high-level committees have described India's arbitration and mediation ecosystem as largely ad-hoc, with parties deciding procedural rules and appointing arbitrators and mediators, which can leave parties dissatisfied and result in disputes returning to courts through appeals.
The link between dispute resolution and economic competitiveness has been assessed through global measures. According to Mint reports, India's overall ranking improved to 63rd in the 2020 World Bank Doing Business report from 77th the previous year, but its ranking on enforcing contracts remained unchanged at 163rd in both 2019 and 2020. The MCI is intended to address the specific problem of creating a formal institutional framework around mediation to encourage parties to resolve disputes outside courts. The government's approach mirrors its 2024 proposal to amend the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996, to create an appellate body for arbitration cases with access limited to disputes resolved through institutions.
