The Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee of the St. Joseph’s College of Law, successfully organized the ADR Competition Week which consisted of the orientation for 1st years, the demo sessions for all the participants on the 9th of January and ultimately 2nd Intra College ADR Competition 2023 from 10th to 13th January 2023.

Day 1- Orientation Session- 2 days
The organizing committee of the ADR committee took the initiative of first introducing the concepts of ADR in 1st-year classes before the ADR competition promoting greater understanding and developing a keen interest among the freshers in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution. The enhancement of interest among the first years resulted in the competition getting an unprecedented number of registrations.

The orientation session was held on 5th January 2023. Student coordinators of the ADR committee presented to the students of 1st BA.LLB, 1st BBA.LLB, 1st BCOM.LLB and 1st LLB on what is ADR, the different forms of alternative dispute resolution, their advantages, and the structure of the upcoming ADR competition. An emphasis was placed on Negotiation, Mediation and Arbitration. The inquisitive students of our college displayed their keen interest in learning the new concepts and subsequently had a plethora of questions to understand the concept better. The student coordinators ensured to spend time in individual classes to clear all the doubts and help the students register for the competition.

A demo session was also organized for the participants of the competition on 9th January 2023. Here, the participants were briefed on the three main rounds of the competition: negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. Each round was elaborated on by a demo session where students demonstrated each round and how it was to be done, with a sample problem. The process of negotiation was displayed by Ishtisham, Sahana and Yasir followed by Mediation by Kritika, Amogha and Sameeksha and finishing it off with Aditya explaining the concept of Arbitration. This session was more focused on how our competition was structured and was intentionally conducted one day before the competition to enhance the understanding of the competition structure that we had developed for this particular edition of the ADR Competition.

The ADR Competition
Day 2- Negotiation Competition

The Competition Structure this time around was truly one of it’s kind where in we had 3 different methods of Alternative Dispute Resolution, innovatively compiled in the form of different rounds of the same competition. On 10th January, the first round of the ADR Competition commenced. In the first round, we had a total of 24 teams planned to lock horns with each other on a commercial problem in between a well-established shoe company and a startup. The team composition that was presented here was a Client, a Counsel, and a Negotiator. The problem was innovative and the solutions were not far behind, most of the negotiation rounds ended with both parties coming to an agreement of profit-sharing and other unique terms which were discussed in SJCL for the first time.

This round of the competition saw diversity in participants where-in there were participants from across all the batches of 3-year LLB courses as well as 5-year integrated courses. The faculty members were invited upon to preside over the 1st round as judges and successfully carried out the competition by keenly observing the proceedings, marking the participants on certain elements such as teamwork, negotiating skills etc. and concluding the rounds with their insightful feedbacks which the students could utilize in the upcoming rounds and other competitions as well. After successful completion of the first round, the best ranked 8 pairs and 8 individuals advanced to the second round.

Day 3 – Mediation Competition

On 11th January, the second round of the ADR Competition was held. This was the mediation round which had a unique proposition of a wife and son being the mediating parties trying to settle the property dispute in the family. The ADR Cell introduced certain complex concepts such as Joint Property, Stocks and Bonds and other assets of the family. The 8 qualified teams participated in the second round as mediating pairs and the top 8 individual participants presided as the mediators for the round. This round was judged by a unique panel of judges who are also practicing advocates, this is to keep up with the most recent practices of mediation. Advocate Harshith, Pooja, Roshan and Priyadarshini marked their presence and gave valuable feedbacks to the participating members. Post conclusion of the round, the individual members who topped the charts in both negotiation and mediation rounds were finalized as the Best Mediator/Negotiator and the top 2 mediating pairs advanced for the final round of the competition, The Arbitration.

Day 4- Arbitration Competition
On 12th January, the two teams which qualified to the final round were briefed on the process of arbitration, how the proceedings and arguments are to be, and they were also given their proposition to understand how the final round will be held. The nuances around the process of Arbitration was explained in depth to prepare the participants for the finals. On 13th January, the final round of the ADR Competition 2023 was held in the AV Room of the St. Joseph’s College of Law. The third and final round was the arbitration round. It was adjudged by Mr. Mahesh Chowdhary and Mr. Aditya Diwakara. Both who have been involved in various national and international alternative dispute resolution mechanisms including Arbitration. The judges of the final round conducted the round with utmost professionalism and always kept the participants on their toes and challenged their team work and quick thinking. They followed by conducting a QnA session with the participants and the audience of the round, the enthusiastic students extracted the details of how ADR happens across different circuits and the judges explained the method of preparation and presentation for the students and shared their rich experience of having been a part of ADR simulations in the European circuit. The event was also witnessed by Fr Jerald Dsouza, Director, and Ms. Pauline Priya, Principal. Father also shared the importance of having mechanisms such as the ADR to ensure efficient justice and guided the students on valuable lessons of life. After competition of the round, the awards were announced. The winning pair was from 3rd BBA.LLB, Mr. Owaise and Mr. Abdur followed by runners up from 3rd BA.LLB, Ms. Varsha and Mr. Milan. Ms. Meghana Thomas was adjudgd as the Best Mediator/Negotiator closely followed up with Mr. Balachandar as the runner up.