As pendency hampers the justice delivery system, the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), led by Supreme Court judge Justice Dipak Misra, has been quietly chipping away at the backlog and has accomplished its latest feat of settling over six lakh cases in just 24 hours.
The Second National Lok Adalat for 2017, conducted on April 8, through out the country from taluk level courts to High Courts, has settled nearly 6.6 lakh cases.
Out of this, 3.68 lakh cases have been reduced from court pendency and about 2.92 lakh cases were settled even before they could be filed in courts.
The cases ranged from matrimonial disputes, partition suits, civil matters, cheque bounce cases, motor accident claims, revenue disputes pending in courts, criminal compoundable cases and service matters pertaining to pension, retrial benefits, etc.
Award is final
The award of a Lok Adalat is final and cannot be challenged by way of appeals and revision, etc.
Moreover, settlement of a pending court case in a Lok Adalat comes with an added incentive of refund of court fee to the party involved in the litigation.
The NALSA, under Justice Misra, has decided to organise bi-monthly National Lok Adalats for both pending and pre-litigative cases.
‘Culture of settlement’
Pendency in subordinate courts is a whopping over 2.7 crore cases.
A statement issued by NALSA emphasised the point made by Justice Misra that it is developing a “culture of settlement”.
Guidelines issued
“A set of guidelines has been issued to State Legal Services Authorities to concentrate on the days of Lok Adalats to make efforts to see that parties in contest arrive at an amicable settlement,” NALSA said in an official release.
