MORE POWERS TO LOK ADALATS
As per available information
so far more than 1 lakh 24 thousand Lok Adalats have been organised
in the country. As organising Lok Adalats is a continuing process
and the purposes of holding Lok Adalats are need based, no specific
number of Lok Adalats to be set up can be indicated.
At present, the Lok Adalats can settle disputes
only on the basis of compromise or settlement among the parties.
If the parties do not arrive at a settlement, the case is either
returned to the court of law or the parties are advised to seek
remedy in a court of law. To remove this drawback, it has been
decided to add a new chapter in the Legal Services Authorities
Act, 1987, which will facilitate setting up of permanent Lok Adalats
for providing compulsory pre-litigative mechanism for conciliation
and settlement of case relating to public utility services such
as transport (air, road, Water), postal, telegraph or telephone,
power, water sanitation, hospitals and insurance. A Bill to this
effect has already been introduced in the Lok Sabha. When passed
by the Parliament, it will enable the National Legal Services
Authority or the State Legal Services Authority, as the case may
be, to establish permanent Lok Adalats at such places and in such
numbers as may be expedient to enable the Lok Adalats to exercise
its jurisdiction in respect of one or more public utility services
as necessary from time to time. To avoid prolonged litigation
it has also been proposed that the award made by the Lok Adalat
shall be final, binding and shall not be questioned in any original
suit, application or execution proceeding. The jurisdiction of
the Lok Adalats would be limited to cases up to a monetary value
of Rs. 10 lakhs. Under clause 22C of the Legal Services Authorities
(Amendment) Bill, 2002, Government has power to increase the limit
of rupees ten lakh in consultation with National Legal Services
Authority.
It is not possible to quantify the reduction
in the Court cases following proposed amendment at present.
This information was given by the Union Minister
of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley in a written
reply to a question from Shri Savshibhai Makwana and Dr. D.V.G.
Shankar Rao in the Lok Sabha today.
