Stephen (Pgm Management Professional (Retired)) 19 March 2019

How to initiate out of court settlement

Dear Experts, I am standing as GPA for one of my friend (Plaintiff) who is living abroad who got his plot cheated by the seller / defendant. A OS and Criminal case has been filed. While with lot of persuasion the OS/5854/2016 has progressed to the extent of cross examination on both sides (Plaint & Defendant) including proof of certified copy of prior OS/598/1998 ORDER decreed in 2010 gone against the defendant. While the same defendant is seeking court monitored survey which hearing is kept pending by judge. Now I am seeking few help and advice from the experts in this panel: a) Who can initiate out-of-court settlement? i.e Me (GPA) OR my friend (Plaintiff). If either of us How and When to initiate and how to inform the court / judge. a.1) Will the judge / court ensure the amount of 26 lakhs claimed in our OS is paid fully by defendants and how would they validate whether the money is paid by defendants. Besides what timeframe would court allow for defendant to honour b) With OR Without out-of-court settlement what are the subsequent stage of this OS need to proceed c) What bearing / help would this court provide is pertaining to criminal case filed for same reasons against same defendants in respect to with / without out-of-court settlement? The above advice and suggestion I ardently seek because the defendant has a habit of cheating similarly others with main reason being we don’t know the whereabouts of the defendant (though he appeared for cross examination) and we don’t know any assets so as to attach as collateral till he repays the money. I desperately need your advice and steps so I can help my friend with right advice before we take this step. Warm Regards Stephen

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Sharma Twinkle Manojkumar (Student) 19 March 2019

Alternate Dispute Resolution is the need of the hour. It is more convenient to settle a case outside the court in a regulated mechanism than to fight the same in the court of law. The concept of ADR comes as a rescue to help people settling their cases out of court.

The most common types of ADRs are

Arbitration
Conciliation
Mediation
Neutral Evaluation

Arbitration as a mechanism of ADR is used mostly by corporate entities. Mediation is mostly used to settle matters relating to family disputes. Conciliation is a form of arbitration but it is less formal in nature. It is the process of facilitating an amicable resolution between the parties, whereby the parties to the dispute use conciliator who meets with the parties separately to settle their dispute.Neutral Evaluation is a new mode of ADR introduced in India in 2007.

Cases relating to property disputes usually take years to settle. Therefore, an alternative of mediation is always available to settle the dispute. This is a form of out of court settlement the only condition is, all the parties to the dispute must agree to out of court settlement.

Section 89 of the CPC talks of out of court settlement through the means of Alternative Dispute Mechanism. Mediation, Conciliation, Lok Adalats are the new tools of the justice dispensing system. It is to be understood here that, it will be wrong to infer from the provision that if the parties agree they can take the case completely out of court’s court. Still, the case will be regulated as per the provisions of the relevant ADRs Act

Make it sure you mention your clear intention of out of court settlement before the court.
Under Order 23 Rule 1 of CPC when a suit is withdrawn for an out of court settlement, litigants are precluded from initiating fresh proceedings of the matter withdrawn.
Out of court proceedings can be quashed by the court. Court can do this only under special circumstances.