Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on July 18, 2026 released the book 'The Mediation Movement in India' at Chandigarh. The book examines mediation and its growth in India, with a particular focus on the Mediation Act, 2023.

The book has been edited by Prof. (Dr.) Seema Gupta, Professor in Law at the University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS), Chandigarh University. It has been published by Law and Justice Publishing Company. The Chief Justice of India has also written the Foreword.

The book brings together twenty-four chapters by twenty-six contributors. They include judges, advocates and senior trainers of the Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee (MCPC) of the Supreme Court, practising mediators and legal academics. The chapters cover the Mediation Act, 2023, pre litigation and institutional mediation, family and commercial disputes, online dispute resolution and artificial intelligence, and the practical challenges of ethics and impasse.

Releasing the book, the Chief Justice observed that while the Mediation Act, 2023 can be read in a single sitting, the practice of mediation cannot be learnt so easily. It is this gap that the book sets out to fill. It explains the craft of mediation, including what a mediator does when talks break down and the human dynamics that no pleading records.

The launch comes at a significant moment for mediation in India. More than five crore cases are pending before the courts. The Mediation Act, 2023 has placed mediation on a statutory footing, and the Mediation for the Nation campaign 2.0, led by the MCPC and NALSA under Chief Justice Surya Kant, is now under way. The first phase settled over one lakh cases across the country.

In her Preface, Prof. Gupta writes that the Indian community has always preferred to talk, to compromise and to settle, and that mediation gives that instinct a structured, legally recognised form. She describes the Mediation Act, 2023 as “a declaration that India is ready to pursue justice through conversation, not only adjudication.”

In his Foreword, the Chief Justice writes that “the mediation movement is not a passing phase. It is a fundamental rethinking of how justice is delivered, and this book is a worthy companion on that journey.”

Prof. Gupta is a certified mediator affiliated with the MCPC and Faculty Advisor of Madhyastha - The Centre of Excellence in ADR at UILS. This is her third book. Her earlier works are 'Reproductive Rights of Women in India' (Bloomsbury, 2023), which carried a Foreword by Justice U.U. Lalit, and 'Judicial Dissent – A Jurisprudential Analysis & Contemporary Outlook' (2024).