Time is ripe for legislation containing compulsory'pre-litigation mediation': CJI NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India S A Bobde on Saturday said the time is ripe to devise a comprehensive legislation which contains "compulsory pre-litigation mediation" that would ensure efficiency and reduce the time of pendency for parties as well as courts. Speaking at the 3rd edition of of an international conference on'Arbitration in the Era of Globalisation', Justice Bobde said a robust "arbitration bar" is critical to the development of institutional arbitration in India as it would ensure availability and accessibility of practitioners with knowledge and experience. Justice Bobde said that today arbitration plays an essential role in the global infrastructure of international trade, commerce and investment and as an integral member of the global community and a trading and investment giant, how India engages with international arbitration has important ramifications on international trans-boundary flows of trade, commerce and investments as a whole. "The pre-institution mediation and settlement as mentioned in the Commercial Courts Act would pave the way for many more institutions to emphasize on the need of pre-litigation mediation considering its very many benefits. "I think the time is ripe to devise a comprehensive legislation which contains compulsory pre-litigation mediation and a remedy for the biggest drawback in a mediation agreement that is to say the unenforceability of an agreement arrived at a mediation would ensure efficiency and also reduce the time pendency for parties as well as the courts," he said. While talking about India's role in international arbitration, Justice Bobde said, "In recent times, globalisation has led to the dramatic growth in cross-border transactions involving India, which has led to an increasing demand for cross-border arbitration.