Mediation Council of India: What Parliament Was Told

The most recent official word on the Mediation Council of India comes from Parliament, not from any website. Answering Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2423 on 13 February 2026, the Minister of State for Law and Justice told the House that the Chairperson and other Members of the Mediation Council of India were yet to be appointed, and that the Council was yet to be established. This page sets out what that answer said, what it changes for you, and how to check today.

Everything below is the position as stated to the Lok Sabha on 13 February 2026, not a statement about today. Appointments get made quietly. The RTI section below shows how to check the current position yourself.

The same answer shows how far the process had and had not gone. The Minister said three sets of rules for the Council were notified on 13 June 2024: rules on the salary and allowances of the Chairperson and Members, on travelling allowances for a part-time Chairperson and part-time Members, and on the forms and manner of the annual statement of accounts.

Twenty months later the same Ministry told Parliament that the Chairperson and other Members were still to be appointed. The rules for the office existed. The office holders did not.

The Mediation Act, 2023 defines the Council in section 3 as “the Mediation Council of India established under section 31”. Section 32 sets out who sits on it, and the Minister described it as envisaging “a seven member body including a Chairperson, one member having experience in law related to mediation or alternative dispute resolution, one member having experience in research or teaching in the field of mediation and alternative dispute resolution laws, three ex-officio members and one representative of a recognized body of commerce and industry”.

Two of those seven places had been filled by nomination. The rest had not.

Mediation in India did not begin with the Mediation Act, 2023. Each route below runs under its own statute and does not depend on the Council.

Court referral. Section 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 lets a court that sees “elements of a settlement which may be acceptable to the parties” formulate the terms and refer the dispute to arbitration, conciliation, judicial settlement including Lok Adalat, or mediation.

Lok Adalat. Organised by legal services authorities under section 19 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. Section 21 says every award “shall be deemed to be a decree of a civil court”, that the court fee paid in a referred case “shall be refunded”, and that the award “shall be final and binding on all the parties to the dispute, and no appeal shall lie to any court against the award”.

Consumer disputes. Section 74 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 requires a consumer mediation cell attached to each District and State Commission, and to the National Commission and its regional Benches. Section 37 lets the Commission direct the parties to consent in writing within five days to settle by mediation, then refer it within five days of that consent. Section 79 holds the mediation in that cell. See our guide on how to file a consumer court case.

Commercial suits. Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 is a bar, not an option. A suit “which does not contemplate any urgent interim relief under this Act, shall not be instituted unless the plaintiff exhausts the remedy of pre-institution mediation”. The Central Government may authorise Authorities constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 for this, and that Authority “shall complete the process of mediation within a period of three months from the date of application”.

For how mediation works under the 2023 Act, see pre-litigation mediation under the Mediation Act 2023.

The Minister was specific about four provisions. He said Chapter IX of the Act “contains novel provisions relating to Mediation Service Providers and Mediation Institutes, wherein Section 40 enables Mediation Council of India to recognise mediation service providers and Section 42 enables Mediation Council of India to recognise mediation institutes”. He said that under section 44 community mediators can devise a suitable procedure with “no role envisaged for the Central Government in this regard”, and that under section 30 online mediation is to follow the manner specified by the Council by way of regulations. Of all of them he said: “These provisions however have not been notified and the Mediation Council of India is yet to be established.”

In plain terms, as of 13 February 2026:

• No Council was able to recognise a mediation service provider under section 40 or a mediation institute under section 42.
• There were no Council regulations for online mediation under section 30.
• Section 44, the procedure for community mediation, had not been brought into force.

Be careful what this does not mean. Online mediation was not unlawful, institutes could still train mediators, and a mediation two willing parties agree to was not invalid. One recognition machinery was not switched on.

Section 40 rewards a closer look. As drafted, it deems a Legal Services Authority body, a court-annexed mediation centre and any other body notified by the Central Government to be recognised by the Council without applying. That deeming provision was itself unnotified, so it was doing no work yet. It shows the intent: existing public mediation infrastructure was never meant to be shut out.

Two community mediation facts blur easily. Section 43 routes an application to the Legal Services Authority for the area, or to the District Magistrate or Sub-Divisional Magistrate where none exists. Section 44, the procedure, was unnotified on that date.

A February 2026 answer is evidence of what was true in February 2026. The reliable way to find where matters stand now is a fresh RTI application on what is plain record.

Address it to the Central Public Information Officer, Department of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Law and Justice. That department is named on the question paper for Unstarred Question No. 2423 and administers the Mediation Act, 2023. The Department of Justice, which published the compiled replies, is the second address.

Questions worth asking:

1. The current status of appointment of the Chairperson and Members of the Mediation Council of India under section 32 of the Mediation Act, 2023, with the date of each appointment made so far.
2. Whether sections 30, 40, 42 and 44 have been brought into force after 13 February 2026, and if so the number and date of each commencement notification.
3. Whether any regulations under section 30 have been made, and a copy of them.
4. Copies of file notings on the selection process for the Chairperson and Members.
5. The number of meetings, if any, held by the Council to date.

On that fourth question. File notings are ordinarily disclosable, but a department may push back by invoking the Section 8 exemptions. Ask anyway, keep the request tied to the process rather than to any individual, and take a blanket refusal to a Section 19 first appeal. The First Appeal Builder drafts that appeal, and the RTI deadline calculator fixes your appeal window.

New to this? Start with RTI for beginners, then file an RTI online. The AI RTI Drafter will word it, and The RTI Playbook covers ministries that answer narrowly.

Take a hypothetical supplier suing a buyer for 8,00,000 rupees of unpaid invoices, with no urgent injunction needed. The Council never enters the picture. Section 12A stops the suit until pre-institution mediation is exhausted, the application goes to the authorised Legal Services Authority, and that Authority must finish within three months. The figures are illustrative.

Parts of it do. The Minister told the Lok Sabha on 13 February 2026 that some provisions had been notified by gazette notification dated 9 October 2023, and that the four he was asked about, sections 30, 40, 42 and 44, had not been. He did not list them. If one section matters to your case, ask the Department of Legal Affairs for the commencement notification rather than assuming.

Nothing in the answer suggests otherwise. A court referral under section 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, a Lok Adalat, or a private agreement between willing parties does not depend on the Mediation Council existing. What the Minister said was missing was the Council recognition machinery for service providers and institutes.

Section 21 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 says every award of a Lok Adalat is deemed to be a decree of a civil court, final and binding, with no appeal to any court. Read the terms carefully before you consent, because you are giving up your right of appeal.

This page does not say, and that is deliberate. Its evidence is a parliamentary answer dated 13 February 2026 and it will not guess at what followed. Appointments and commencement notifications can be made at any time and are not always announced loudly. File the RTI above, or watch for a later answer in either House, before relying on the February position.

• Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2423, answered 13 February 2026 by the Minister of State for Law and Justice, Department of Legal Affairs. Reproduced in the compiled volume of replies published by the Department of Justice: https://www.doj.gov.in/static/uploads/2026/04/b915aaee940e3b0ebd8315afe2b7945c.pdf
• The Mediation Act, 2023 on India Code: https://www.indiacode.gov.in/handle/123456789/496500
• The Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 on India Code: https://www.indiacode.gov.in/handle/123456789/586370
• The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 on India Code: https://www.indiacode.gov.in/handle/123456789/548652
• The Commercial Courts Act, 2015 on India Code: https://www.indiacode.gov.in/handle/123456789/496498
• The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 on India Code: https://www.indiacode.gov.in/handle/123456789/567990

• Pre-litigation mediation under the Mediation Act 2023
• How to file a consumer court case
• How to file an RTI
• The RTI Act 2005
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