Introduction to Mediation:

1. In Sikkim, Mediation was introduced in the year 2009. The first Mediation Centre was established in the office of Sikkim State Legal Services Authority, East District on 11.05.2009 followed by Mediation Centres being set up in all the three districts of Sikkim i.e South District at Namchi on 31.05.2009, West District at Gyalshing on 20.02.2010 and North District at Mangan on 18.02.2010.




 Mediation Monitoring Committee

1. As per the Notification No. 57/HCS dated 25.02.2016 received from the Hon'ble High Court of Sikkim, Hon'ble Shri Justice S.K.Sinha, the then Chief Justice, High Court of Sikkim & Patron-in-Chief , Sikkim SLSA had constituted a One Member Mediation Monitoring Committee by inducting Hon'ble Mrs. Justice Meenakshi Madan Rai, Judge, High Court of Sikkim, and Executive Chairperson, Sikkim SLSA.


2. In supersession to the above Notification, Mediation Monitoring Committee was reconstituted vide Notification bearing No. 26/HCS dated 06.09.2018 comprising of the following Members:-



1	Hon'ble the Chief Justice	Patron-in-Chief & Ex-Officio Chairman
2	Hon'ble Mrs Justice Meenakshi Madan Rai,Judge, High Court of Sikkim	Judge-in-Charge & Executive Chairperson, Sikkim SLSA
3	Member Secretary, Sikkim State Legal Services Authority	Member
4	Mr. N.Rai, Senior Advocate	Member
5	Mr. Tashi Rapten Barfungpa, Advocate	Member
6	Mr. Praveen Pradhan, Deputy Secretary, Sikkim State Legal Services Authority	Secretary/Incharge



3. It is pertinent to mention here that although the High Court Mediation Monitoring Committee has been set up, the entire exercises is being carried out and funded by the Sikkim SLSA considering the manageable number of cases referred for Mediation and that both the institutions are headed by the Hon'ble Executive Chairman apart from the reduction in the expenditure for the programme.


4. In Sikkim we have 4 (four) Mediation Centres (East at Gangtok, South at Namchi, North at Pentok and West at Gyalshing) established during the year, 2009 and February, 2010 as follows -

Sl. No.	District	Place	Date
1	East	Office of the Sikkim State Legal Services Authority Development Area, Gangtok.	11th May, 2009
2	South	District Court Premises, South & West District at Namchi.	31st May, 2009
3	North	Pentok, Mangan.	18th February, 2010
4	West	Office Premises of Civil Court, Gyalshing.	20th February, 2010


To make the Mediation Centres more effective, it was felt necessary to have sufficiently local trained Mediators. Since, we did not have such Resource Persons at the initial stages, we were dependent on the MCPC for the purpose. In order to overcome this, the Hon'ble Executive Chairperson/Chairman, High Mediation Monitoring Committee, took up the initiative to have trained Mediators within the State by getting members of the Bar, Judicial Officers, Psychiatrist and NGOs as Mediators.


5. The Sikkim SLSA has conducted 10 (ten) training programmes for training Mediators in Sikkim. A 1 day training programme for Referral Judges was also conducted. 52 Mediators comprising of Ld. Judicial Officers, Advocates, members of NGOs and a Psychiatrist have been trained as Mediators by trained Mediators deputed by the Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee (MCPC), Supreme Court of India, New Delhi.

The training programme of the existing Mediators were carried out by the Sikkim SLSA at various phase with the help of Trainers deputed by MCPC.

Thereafter trained Mediators who have undergone 40 hours Mediation Training Programme conducted by Sikkim SLSA under the aegis of MCPC have been sworn in as Mediators.