Akhilesh Srivastava - The Man behind the Implementation of ODR

1. Akhilesh Srivastava - The Man behind the Implementation of ODR In a democratic country like India, the developmental works won’t go in an expected way all times. Many legal entanglements have been the common sight in most of the developmental projects. They induced delays in the execution of projects/works. Apart from that, the legal disputes have been cropping day on day, which is leading to overflow of cases in the judicial courts of India. The Judicial system in India is running out of its capacity due to the millions of cases mounting up. In the wake of which, the Government of India has proposed a tech-based solution named Online Dispute Resolution (ODR)-Portal. And, it assigned a committee to look after the development of ODR portal in which Mr Akhilesh Srivastava is one of the members. Can ODR portal meet its objectives? The Government of the day, the general public, and the developing parties have to deal with innumerable issues while undertaking the developmental works. The development, which doesn’t ensure social and economic justice, is not worthy to have. Otherwise, it creates many law and order problems in the society. So, there has to be proper checks and balances in the system to promote inclusive development to the needy. But, the system should not put the development at stake, while delivering justice to the needy. The Judiciary system, as mentioned earlier that it is running out of capacity, has to fight tooth and nail to deal with copious cases. So, this ODR portal is expected to streamline the cases related to the stalled developmental projects. By which the developmental works could gain momentum. The portal is going to be live, wherein it can facilitate the litigants with more online services that reduce the cost of legal battles and the time of legal course. The Ministry of Law and Justice has assigned the task of developing ODR portal to Construction Industry Arbitration Council (CIAC), which is a joint venture of the Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC) and Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). The CIAC appointed a committee to suggest improvements in the ODR portal under the leadership of Mr Arijit Pasayat, Retired judge of Supreme Court of India. Mr Akhilesh Srivastava, who is CGM of IT and Highway operations division in NHAI, has been one of the active members of the committee. #AkhileshSrivastava #ODR #CIDC #NHAI