As many as 1.5 lakh cases pending in various courts in the State were settled at the three-month-long Mega Lok Adalat that concluded on Saturday, Chief Justice of the High Court of Karnataka D.H. Waghela has said.
Participating in the inaugural session on the closing day of the adalat at the High Court here, he said that an additional 50,000 cases, which were in the pre-litigation stage across the State, were also settled during the period.
The Chief Justice said that more than the number of cases settled, the achievement of the adalat was that a message had reached people that there were alternative methods of dispute resolution.
The adalat was an effort to reach out to people who “suffer injustice” owing to pendency of cases in courts, he added. Appreciating the co-operation of advocates, the Chief Justice said: “If there is more cooperation from members of the Bar, then the demand for more judges in court can come down…”
Supreme Court of India judge H.L. Dattu said more cases could be settled if the presiding officer of the Lok Adalat was empowered to pass a final order in cases where the litigating parties failed to resolve the dispute amicably. As many as 62,500 cases related to revenue and pending in district administrations had also been cleared since January 2014, said N.K. Patil, High Court judge and Executive Chairperson of the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority. As many as 42,000 revenue cases were settled in Kolar district and around 8,000 cases were settled in Ramanagaram district, he added.
