Access to justice for the poor is a constitutional mandate to ensure fair treatment under our legal system. Hence, Lok Adalats (literally, ‘People’s Court’) were established to make justice accessible and affordable to all. It was a forum to address the problems of crowded case dockets outside the formal adjudicatory system.
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 Adalat is a new dispute resolution mechanism. It aims to achieve justice by adopting a simple, inexpensive, expeditious, informal and friendly procedure.
The Lok Adalat was first started in Gujarat in March 1982 and slowly spread across the country. The advent of Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 gave a statutory authority to Lok Adalats, pursuant to the constitutional mandate in Article 39-A of the Indian Constitution. The article aims to ensure equal justice and free legal aid for everyone. The act aimed to provide free and competent legal services to weaker sections of the society and organise Lok Adalats that would give people an equal opportunity to seek justice.
Lok Adalats are a popular method of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and often referred to as mini-tribunals. It is a platform for the formation of amicable agreements between the parties.
They are regularly organised to help parties reach a compromise. Core Subject matters of Lok Adalats include motor-accident claims, disputes related to public-utility services, cases related to dishonour of cheques etc.
As per the estimates of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) – State Adalats disposed of around 52 lakh cases between 2016-20.
Similarly, the (National Lok Adalats) NLAs have disposed of a total of 2.93 crore cases in the same period.
E-Lok Adalats were organized at both the national and State level to overcome the pandemic challenge. The first national e-Lok Adalat disposed of around 10.5 lakh cases.
Issues of Lok Adalats have been rising, and need attention. This is because the number of cases filed in these courts has increased along with delays.
Issues related to settlements, arbitration of disputes, allocation of funds are some of the issues Lok Adalats are confronted with currently.
Moreover, a fall in performance has been witnessed since 2017. Nearly 21% cases have remained unresolved for over two years. This is as per National Legal Services Authority’s data and also an urgent call by various court-buffers and legal experts.
NLAs now cover a variety of subjects while earlier they were subject matter-specific. The average cases settled by NLAs in 2015 were around 18 lakhs. It has now reduced to 13.3 lakhs in 2019 as per NALSA’s data.
All talks are considered under the session of e-lok adalat that is scheduled during the court holidays. The schedule of the same is announced on the official website which is also updated on an almost regular basis so that litigants do not miss out their chance of relief.
