The fact that India is on its way to become the IT superpower, implies on the flip side that many disputes would rule the scene in the days to come. Though IT-related disputes are common occurrences in the USA and other developed countries, they are still in an infancy stage in India.

IT-related disputes range from simple domain name registration, copyright violations to poor performance of software and hardware, which need to be solved in a matter of weeks. However, in the present circumstances, disputes take ages to be settled, making it unviable for the time-bound IT industry to go to courts every time.
 
The only alternative for the IT industry then is to get the cases solved through mutually agreed mediators or Arbitrators. Arbitration or mediation is the best Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) that the IT industry can look up to, said Karnataka High Court Judge G C Bharuka at a recent seminar held here.

Speaking at the seminar which gave an insight into mediation and arbitration in IT disputes, Justice G C Bharukha said that there are at least four crore cases pending in various Indian courts. The IT industry cannot afford to spend much time to get its disputes solved, he said. Moreover, unlike in the West, Indian courts are not fully prepared to take up IT-related disputes, he pointed out.

Major legal problems arising in IT industry

1. Legal relationship (contract between user/service provider or between users)
2. Software/hardware performance, quality or function
3. Taxation of transactions
4. Copyright violations
5. Cyber space violation
6. Cyber crime/ defamation/ hacking
7. Gambling
8. Domain names

Available rules to solve IT-related cases

1. IT-Act 2000
2. Three series of amendments (92,94 and 99) brought to the Copyright Act
3. International Chamber of Commerce – arbitration rules
4. WTO has come out with some rules and regulations for online transactions

In the future, more and more transactions will be done on the net creating a vast area of unregulated cyber space. As online disputes are expected to rise in the future, people would prefer to get their disputes solved through an arbitrator/mediator, preferably online mediator.

The explosive growth of e-commerce will result in an increasing number of disputes that traditional courts are ill-equipped to handle. Buyers and sellers come from all corners of the globe, crossing both geographic and jurisdictional boundaries. Person to person contact is minimal and when those mistakes, errors and misunderstandings do occur, resolving the conflict can be time-consuming and expensive for everyone involved.

Bharuka said the Indian legal system itself is not equipped to take on IT-related and online transaction cases. “We rarely find any such cases. I myself have never come across one all my life," he said. That's why it’s better for the IT industry to seek mediators or arbitrators to get their cases solved.  Bharuka said that online dispute resolution would become an effective way to resolve IT-related disputes in future, as it will reduce court fee and time.

Though there exists no online mediators or arbitrators in India, there are many in western countries. Bbonline.com, clicknsettle.com, squaretrade.com, settleonline.com, eresolution.com are a few online arbitrators in the world. The Indian Council of Arbitrators (ICA) is planning to set up an online dispute resolution system. ICA Executive Director G K Kwatra said that the plan is still in its infant stages.

How it Works

In a case of online dispute resolution, the complainant is first asked to register himself before filing a case. The filing party is then asked to enter information about the case such as their contact information, case type and contact information about the opposing party. Then the arbitrators contact the opposite party online and try to resolve the case.

Supreme Court Advocate Devashish Bharukha says that setting up of an online ADRs should not be problem for India as it possesses good arbitrators like the ICA. The American Arbitrators Association (AAA) recently conducted a survey involving 1000 Fortune companies regarding online dispute resolution. It was found that a majority of the companies are prepared for an online dispute resolution. On July 12, 2001, AAA launched its own online ADR system to solve the disputes of its clients online. ICA should take the example of AAA and should set up an online ADR system, he said. ICA has already setup a committee specially to resolve IT-related disputes.

Recently a `Virtual Court Room’ was set up in Australia to solve the disputes online for its clients. But the experiment has not found more customers due to high cost, which is nearly 100,000 dollars, said Chennai High Court Advocate Anita Sumanth.