A Lok Adalat was held at the Madras High Court on Sunday to resolve over 900 long-pending cases.
Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla, inaugurating the Adalat, said the sessions provided speedy justice and immediate relief, averting appeals and saving court time.
At the time of formulating National Litigation Policy, it was found that one-half of the pending cases was related to government and its agencies. As cases took 15 years to attain finality, training was given to judicial officers at all levels with the objective to reduce the time to three years, he said, addressing the Adalat session, organised by the Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority and High Court Legal Services Committee.
Since many cases pertained to insurance companies, transport corporations and the electricity board, he asked the authorities concerned to utilise the Lok Adalat more to resolve majority of the cases, he said.
Presiding over the function, Justice M. Chockalingam said there was lack of awareness among people about the benefits of Lok Adalat where both parties gained. At a recent Lok Adalat session in Madurai, nearly 900 cases were listed but parties concerned turned up only in respect of about 30 per cent of the cases, of which only 50 per cent was settled.
The legal fraternity should popularise the benefits of the Lok Adalat system. What was more important was the number of cases settled and not the number of cases listed, he said.
Among those who addressed the function were Justice P.R. Sivakumar and Justice T. Sudanthiram.
