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 09.12.2023 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 46 benches were constituted; 21 Benches at Amritsar District Courts, 1 Bench of Permanent Lok Adalat, 2 Benches at Ajnala and 2 Bench at Baba Bakala Sahib.
Apart from this Revenue courts of District Administration Amritsar has also constituted 16 Lok Adalat Benches at their level for taking up and disposal of maximum cases in this National Lok Adalat. 02 Lok Adalat benches of Counseling cell by crime against women cell of Police Department, 01 bench of Municipal Corporation Amritsar and 01 bench of Cooperative Societys Bank have constituted at their own level.
During this National Lok Adalat 25450 cases were taken up and 22250 cases were settled and disposed of. It was told by the Chairman, District Legal Services Authority 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.
Recording a success story of a case in nature of under section 138 Negotiable Instrument Act, which was pending in the courts since 2017. The litigation is of 2017 and parties were litigating the case of Rs. 5,80,000/- of Cheque bounce. Today the case was taken up by the court of Sh. Darbari Lal, Additional District & Sessions Judge and effort were made by the Learned Presiding officer and Members of the Lok Adalat bench and with sheer efforts, the matter got compromised between the parties amicably.