lok Adalats conducted across the country on Saturday saved the judiciary an extra burden of 1.25 crore cases that got resolved even before being filed in courts. NAlSA, the apex body which organised the lok Adalats in every district and State claimed that close to 2.70 lakh pending cases across all courts were also settled by this initiative.
A release issued by NAlSA said, “Approximately 1.25 crore cases, which include pending and pre-litigation cases, have been settled. The immediate impact of this has been in the reduction of pendency averaging about 9 per cent across all States.”
The second National lok Adalat was inaugurated on Saturday in the Supreme Court by Chairman of Supreme Court legal Services Authority Justice AR Dave. A video conferencing facility set up at Supreme Court coordinated with all district and State legal services authority till late about 10 pm.
The release by NAlSA stated that the impact of the settlement directly or indirectly resulted in litigants receiving over `3,000 crore by way of petty disputes, motor accident claims, cheque bounce and bank recovery cases, etc. Even in the Supreme Court, 28 out of 53 cases put up for settlement were disposed of and cheques were handed out at the time of settlement itself, NAlSA release said.
This has come as a major succor for the judiciary which is reeling under the burden of close to three crore cases. The Supreme Court itself shares a burden of 64,919 pending cases. A similar lok Adalat conducted last year helped wipe off 70 lakh cases that made NAlSA hopeful of improving the tally this year.
Inaugurating the lok Adalat this year, Justice Dave said, “People need to have a big heart and keep their ego under control to get the dispute resolved in lok Adalat”. He favoured this method as “it is fast and less expensive”. Also, “relation between the litigants does not get strained and they remain cordial as they mutually agree to dissolve the dispute,” Justice Dave said.
Three lok Adalat Benches sat in the apex court to hear cases involving matrimonial disputes and motor accident compensation claims. In Supreme Court, pendency currently stands at 64,919, which is better than 66,349 in January this year. It dipped to 63,843 by May but showed a steep rise to 65,970 in two months. From then on, the pendency has marked a steady decrease. At present, 29 Constitutional matters are pending in court while in July, it stood at a whopping 148. By September, when former CJI RM lodha bid farewell, the number was reduced to 22. Matters referred by constitutional authorities, public bodies and states currently stand at 134, which has shown an increase since July when under this category only 33 matters were pending.