As per the directions given by National Legal Services Authority and Punjab State Legal Services Authority, SAS Nagar, Mohali and under the able guidance of Smt. Harpreet Kaur Randhawa, Hon’ble District & Sessions Judge, Amritsar National Lok Adalat was held on 09.09.2023 at District Courts Amritsar, Ajnala and Baba Bakala Sahib.
In this regard, Sh. Rachhpal Singh,Civil Judge, Sr. Divn. Amritsar has conveyed the message for general public that the cases of following categories such as Criminal Compoundable, Bank Recovery, Cheque Bounce, Matrimonial Disputes, Electricity and Water bills, Telecoms, MACT Matters, Labour Disputes, Traffic Challans etc were taken up in this National Lok Adalat and in total 31 benches were constituted; 23 Benches at Amritsar District Courts, 1 Bench of Permanent Lok Adalat, 1 bench of Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour court, 1 of Bench Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission, 3 Benches at Ajnala and 2 Bench at Baba Bakala Sahib.
Apart from this Revenue courts of District Administration Amritsar has also constituted 12 Lok Adalat Benches at their level for taking up and disposal of maximum cases in this National Lok Adalat and 04 Lok Adalat bench of Counseling cell by crime against women cell of Police Department.
During this National Lok Adalat 29284 cases were taken up and 19833 cases were settled and disposed of. It was told by the Smt. Harpreet Kaur Randhawa, Learned Chairman that the Lok Adalats are organized by Legal Services Authorities, as an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mode wherein pre-litigative and pending cases in the courts would be disposed on the basis of amicable settlement without any expense on the part of litigants.
In recovery cases court fees affixed by the parties on the plant at the time of filling of suits are also ordered to be refunded. It is free of cost and expeditious method to bring litigating parties to a settlement of their disputes and saving them from prolong litigation under adversarial system of adjudication which is generally perceived to be time consuming, complex and costly.
Lok Adalats are also instrumental in reducing the burden on arrears of the court disposal of long pending litigation between the parties.