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Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) refers to all those methods of resolving a

dispute which are alternatives for litigation in the courts. It is a decision making process to
resolve disputes that does not involve litigation or violence.

Conciliation is a well-accepted method of Alternative Dispute Resolution. It is a

method by which the parties to a dispute use the services or take the assistance of a neutral
and impartial third person or institution, called a conciliator as a means of helping them to
reduce the extent of their differences and to arrive at an amicable settlement or agreed
solution according to a compromise rather than by law.

Conciliation may thus be defined as a non-contentious and non-binding procedure in

which an impartial third party, the conciliator, assists the parties by understanding the pros
and cons of the respective positions taken by them and help them in reaching a mutually
agreed settlement of the dispute. Unlike courts, tribunals and arbitrators, the conciliator
does not give a decision; his function is to induce the parties in the dispute to come to a
settlement Conciliation is as old as the Indian history. In Mahabharata when both parties
were determined to resolve the conflict in battle fields, Lord Krishna made efforts to resolve
the conflict.

The best example where conciliation played an integral role is of the highly politically
sensitive case of the Beagle channel dispute over the ownership of certain islands in the
entrance to the channel between Chile and Argentina. The mediator was the Vatican. The
process was remarkable because it was flexible enough to accommodate the changing
political environments in both countries and the mediator used a range of tools to great
advantage. This process served to protect a fragile peace between the countries and
ultimately allowed them to create an agreement that has lasted until this day.

So from the above set of findings and study we can say that it is one of the best
method of ADR, to solve the dispute between the parties, due to its unique advantages,
which we do not get in arbitration, its success rate is high, in the coming years people might
not solve their dispute by arbitration but conciliation.