Context
National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) successfully organised the first National Lok Adalat of 2024 in the taluks, districts and high courts of 34 states and Union territories on Saturday.
Background
Over 11.3 million cases settled in first National Lok Adalat of 2024. Figures show the effectiveness of alternative mechanisms for dispute resolution.
About Lok Adalat
Lok Adalat is one of the alternative dispute redressal mechanisms, it is a forum where disputes/cases pending in the court of law or at pre-litigation stage are settled/ compromised amicably. Lok Adalats have been given statutory status under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.
Under the said Act, the award (decision) made by the people’s court is deemed to be a decree of a civil court and is final and binding on all parties and no appeal against such an award lies before any court of law.
Proceedings
If the parties are not satisfied with the award of the people’s court though there is no provision for an appeal against such an award, but they are free to initiate litigation by approaching the court of appropriate jurisdiction by filing a case by following the required procedure, in exercise of their right to litigate.
There is no court fee payable when a matter is filed in a Lok Adalat. If a matter pending in the court of law is referred to the Lok Adalat and is settled subsequently, the court fee originally paid in the court on the complaints/petition is also refunded back to the parties.
The persons deciding the cases in the Lok Adalats are called the Members of the people’s court, they have the role of statutory conciliators only and do not have any judicial role; therefore, they can only persuade the parties to come to a conclusion for settling the dispute outside the court in the people’s court and shall not pressurize or coerce any of the parties to compromise or settle cases or matters either directly or indirectly.
Disputes before people’s court would be decided on the basis of the compromise or settlement between the parties. The members shall assist the parties in an independent and impartial manner in their attempt to reach amicable settlement of their dispute.
National Lok Adalat
National Level Lok Adalats are held for at regular intervals where on a single day people’s court are held throughout the country, in all the courts right from the Supreme Court till the Taluk Levels wherein cases are disposed off in huge numbers.
Permanent Lok Adalat
- The other type of people’s court is the Permanent people’s court, organized under Section 22-B of The Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.
- Permanent Lok Adalats have been set up as permanent bodies for providing compulsory pre-litigative mechanism for conciliation and settlement of cases relating to Public Utility Services like transport, postal, telegraph etc.
- Here, even if the parties fail to reach to a settlement, the Permanent people’s court gets jurisdiction to decide the dispute, provided, the dispute does not relate to any offence.
Read also: Settlement of Disputes
