Lok Adalats & Legal Aid

8/3/2019 Lok Adalats & Legal Aid

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Lok Adalats & Legal Aid in India:

Present Status & Future ProspectusShah Muneeb Raza *

Justice in India is precious only for the poor. When we talk of Justice we talkfor the common man and his quest for Justice. He is not the rich affluenttrader, industrialist or professional but the ordinary man in the town, city orvillage living in ordinary circumstances. He belongs to the poor and lowerstrata of the society. As a village folk, he is concerned with the adjudicationof his rights and his claims in the cultivator land, its crops, house site or apart thereof, matrimonial disputes, compensatory claims for the landsacquired or for the motor accident suffered and other small civil disputes and

criminal cases. He has no means and capacity, whatsoever to indulge in, ordefend, any litigation in the courts but human nature as it is, he getsinescapably involved in litigation, civil or criminal and once involved he mustpursue and contest it to its logical end even while rendering himself to thestate of helplessness and bankruptcy.

The onus of this bankruptcy lies on the Indian judicial system which is highlyexpensive and depressingly slow and as the saying goes, in court litigation,“the victor is really the vanquished and the vanquished is actually dead.”Problems of delays and expensive litigation has an adverse effect on thecommon man who has hardly an enduring and staying capacity as against

the stronger and more powerful strong adversary. These problems, though,have engaged the attention and consideration of several legal luminaries of the country and as a result some procedural changes have been made andalternative forums like the Service Tribunals, Motor Accident CompensationClaims Tribunals, Railway Tribunals, and Consumers Forums have beencreated, as to ensure speedier disposal of specified categories of litigationand to reduce the workload in the courts. The rate of disposal has increasedto a considerable extent, but the overall institution continues to exceeddisposal. A look at the statistics of institution and disposal in 1999 and 2006in the High Courts would show that the total institution has gone up from 11,22,430 to 15, 89,979 and disposal from 9, 80,474 to 14,50,602. Similarly, inthe subordinate courts also the institution has gone up from 1,27,31,275 to1,56,42,129 and disposal from 1,23,94,760 to 1,58,42,438. Practically in allthese cases it is the common man who is involved.

Lok Adalat (court of people) has come as a supplemental forum to help andaid the judicial system as a result of the constitutional mandate contained in

* Student, B.A.LL.B. (Hons.) II, Faculty of law, AMU- Aligarh.202002 [email protected]

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Article 39-A of the Constitution of India inserted through the 42ndamendment in 1976. Article 39A of the Constitution of India provides for freelegal aid to the poor and weaker sections of the society and ensures justicefor all. To carry out this constitutional mandate, State Legal Aid & AdviceBoards have been set up almost in all the states of the country, headed by

the Apex Body known as Committee for Implementing Legal Aid Schemes. In1987, the Legal Services Authorities Act was enacted by the Parliamentwhich came into force on 9th November, 1995 with an object to establish anationwide uniform network for providing free and competent legal servicesto the weaker sections of the society on the basis of equal opportunity. TheNational Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has been constituted under theLegal Services Authorities Act, 1987 to monitor and evaluate implementationof legal services available under the Act.

Legal Aid in the form of Court-fees, Court expense, engagement of Counselto initiate and contest cases before the courts/Tribunals is extended to the

eligible person who seek it, namely, Women, Children, Members of Scheduled Castes/Tribes, Ex-army personnel and all others whose annualincome does not exceed Rs. 50,000/- . As to bring in more competent, well-known and senior lawyers for rendering Legal Services and Legal Aid,payment of better honorarium to the lawyers who provide Legal Aid hasbeen considered. In appropriate cases, payment of the entire expensesincluding the normal fees of the lawyers is provided by the government.

Lok Adalat has a positive contributory role in the administration of Justice. It

supplements the efforts and work of the courts and the area of contribution

chosen for the purpose specially concerns and helps the common man, the

poor, who rightfully claim speedy and cheap justice. When the bread earner

dies in a motor accident, the victim’s family expects and requires to be

provided compensation without the last delay. Undue delay in settlement of

Motor Accident Compensation claims in most cases defeats the very core of

the purpose. It is in this area that Lok Adalat is rendering very useful service

to the needy. It is no means achievement that till now as many 2,68,00,000

Motor Accident Compensation claims were settled at about 7,25,000 Lok

Adalats. In about 16,87,000 Motor Accident Claim cases, more than Rs.

75,93,00,00,000 has been awarded as compensation. It is not merely the

question of payment, the time of expense factor and saving of victim familiesfrom harassments involved in execution and appeal proceedings are of

considerable importance.

Lok Adalats are making their indispensible contribution in the area of

matrimonial cases too, including those under Sec 125 Cr.P.C. In matrimonial

cases first point of dispute generally discussed is about maintenance and in

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Lok Adalats that points are settled. Lok Adalat for matrimonial disputes is

functioning on regular basis at the Boards level where not only advice is

rendered in matrimonial matters but efforts are made to settle through

mediation, disputes, whether pending in the courts or not, and compromises

arrived at are then required to be filled by the parties before the court

concerned for formal orders.

Lok Adalats can, beyond a shadow of a doubt, claim proud achievement in

the disposal of petty criminal cases punishable by fine. At present 52,00,000

cases relating to petty offences are pending throughout the country in

District and subordinate courts. The majority of cases are of petty nature and

if decided in a limited time frame the huge pendancy can be eased up. Lok

Adalats are playing an important role in disposing of these cases.

Methodology adopted in these cases is to organize maximum number of

magisterial courts to work as Lok Adalats. Service of summons is done by

post for which fund are specially allocated by the board. As regards the

quantum of fine for the other minor acts, monitoring is done to maintain

uniformity and reasonableness. Big district where pendency of criminal cases

is very heavy specially chosen. Bulk disposal of such cases relieves the

magisterial courts of heavy burden of work enabling them to regulate their

case diary to take up cases pertaining to serious offences. By adopting such

methodology the pendency would be reduced by 20%.

Lok Adalats, the most popular of all alternative disputes redressal (ADR)

mechanisms, has found its presence in another area pertaining to banks. Thebanks have started preferring the Lok Adalat route to the time-consumingprocess of fighting civil cases in courts to recover bad personal loans andcredit card dues. The cases relating to bouncing of cheques have also beentaken up and a record number of 7,300 pending cases relating todishonouring of cheques have been disposed in one such attempt in sixdifferent district courts in the national capital. Settling of these cases byLok Adalats would definetly reduce the burden on judicial forums, as in caseof non-settlement of these disputes they would end up as civil suits incourts?

The programme of Legal Aid and Lok Adalat is a means of great socialservice particularly to the poor, backward, ignorant and exploited sections of the society. The states have taken it up and implemented it with missionaryzeal. In a spirit of service and commitment about 96,99,000 people havebenefited through legal aid and advice throughout the country till now, inwhich about 13,83,000 persons belonging to Scheduled Caste and 4,64,000people of Scheduled Tribe communities were beneficiaries.

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The future of Lok Adalats in India seems to be thriving as the proceduresfollowed at Lok Adalat put the Indian legal system to shame as it is shorn of all customary legal rituals and formalisms. Lok Adalats are very effective inbringing about expeditious remedy because the settlements are done aftermutual consultation and consent. The settlement is final, as neither of the

parties can appeal against the Lok Adalat ruling. There are no chargesinvolved and no protocols to be followed to formally file a suit against eitherparty.

The feature of a Lok Adalat that makes it an outright choice for adjudicationof matters trivial in magnitude is its inexpensive remedy with legal status. The awards by Lok Adalat are to be considered as legally binding as is adecree of a court: this was enforced by the apex body of Indian legalstructure, the Supreme Court. Quick disposition of matters attracts litigantstowards this ancient form of jurisdiction and it can be rightly said that sunnydays are back again.

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