Chief Justice of India Surya Kant underscored the integral role of mediation in securing sustainable justice and social harmony, asserting that peace should not be perceived as being distinct from the rule of law but as one of its significant outcomes.
Addressing the Commonwealth Peace Mediation Conference 2026 organised by the Rajasthan State Legal Services Society and the Rajasthan High Court in Jaipur, the CJI said, “Peace is not the absence of law. Peace is one of law’s finest achievements,” while advocating for mediation to be recognised as an intrinsic component of the rule-of-law framework rather than being treated merely as an alternative to conventional adjudication.
Referring to the conference theme “Peace, Mediation and the Rule of Law, CJI said it sought to challenge the conventional understanding that adjudication and peacebuilding operate in separate spheres.The CJI was speaking at a session before an audience comprising judges, jurists, diplomats, legal practitioners and mediation professionals from across Commonwealth jurisdictions
According to the CJI, the traditional conception of the rule of law has largely been associated with courtrooms, judicial precedent and binding judgments, whereas peace has often been linked with dialogue, compromise and consensus-building.
CJI further said the conference provides an opportunity to move beyond this perceived dichotomy and recognise mediation as a process capable of advancing the rule of law by facilitating consensual, durable and dignified dispute resolution.
The three-day conference, jointly organized by the Rajasthan High Court, Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority, Commonwealth Lawyers Association, Supreme Court Bar Association and Nivaaran, will examine the application and evolution of mediation across eight broad domains.
Drawing from his personal experiences, the CJI recalled growing up in a village in Haryana, where disputes were traditionally resolved through community-based mechanisms rather than formal litigation.
He observed that disputes concerning boundary walls, water channels or access to roads were often resolved through discussions involving village elders. Such informal mechanisms, he noted, embodied the essential principles of mediation long before the terminology of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) became widely used.
The CJI emphasised that the efficacy of dispute resolution should ultimately be assessed by the durability of the settlement and its ability to restore relationships, rather than merely by the execution of formal settlement documents.
In this context, he suggested that a successful resolution is one that enables parties to resume their lives and relationships without continuing hostility, highlighting the restorative dimension of mediation.
Drawing an analogy from Jaipur’s urban design, the CJI said the city was planned around principles of harmony and proportion, ensuring that no single part dominates another.
He observed that the ethos underlying Jaipur’s planning offered an appropriate backdrop for a conference on mediation, as the mediation process similarly requires the competing interests of parties to be balanced without permitting the voice of one participant to overpower another.
Elaborating on the conference agenda, the CJI said the deliberations would cover a wide range of specialised areas, including Family Mediation, Workplace Mediation, Commercial and Infrastructure Mediation, Criminal Justice Mediation, Community Mediation, Environmental and Climate Mediation, and global peacebuilding.
On family disputes, the CJI stressed that mediation must look beyond the mere distribution of property or resolution of financial claims. He said the process should, where possible, protect familial relationships and ensure that children continue to have meaningful relationships with both parents despite matrimonial discord.
Highlighting the significance of mediation in infrastructure disputes, he said disputes concerning stalled highways, delayed power projects and similar infrastructure developments have ramifications extending far beyond the litigating parties. Such disputes, he noted, can affect the livelihoods and economic interests of thousands of people dependent on timely completion of projects.
The CJI also drew attention to the emerging field of environmental and climate mediation, where conventional notions of disputing parties acquire a distinctive dimension because environmental resources such as rivers and forests cannot articulate their own interests.
He said mediation therefore has the potential to facilitate participatory and balanced decision-making in disputes involving ecological concerns, competing developmental priorities and the interests of communities.
Congratulating the organisers for convening a distinguished assembly of judicial officers, jurists, diplomats, advocates and mediation experts, the CJI emphasised the importance of mediation’s often understated contribution to the justice delivery system.
He said the noiseless work undertaken through mediation across diverse fields can play a crucial role in enhancing access to justice, reducing adversarial conflict, preserving relationships and strengthening social cohesion across Commonwealth jurisdictions.
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