National Lok Adalat pertaining to all types of cases (except non compoundable criminal cases) was held in District Patiala on 9.12.2023 under the supervision of Ms. Rupinderjit Chahal, Ld. District & Sessions Judge-cum- Chairperson, District Legal Services Authority, Patiala.
On the eve of National Lok Adalat, 34 lok adalat benches including 23 in Patiala, 05 in Rajpura, 02 in Nabha and 03 in Samana were constituted in District Patiala. One bench was constituted in Revenue Court of District Patiala for settlement of maximum cases pertaining to mutation and partition etc.
During this National Lok Adalat, 34929 cases were taken up under different categories and 22439 cases were settled through mutual compromise involving amount of Rs 1015916924/-. During this National Lok Adalat, Ms Surinder Pal kaur, Additional District & Sessions Judge, Patiala alongwith Ms. Manni Arora, Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Patiala visited the benches of this National Lok Adalat and encouraged the parties to settle their disputes amicably.
While telling about the benefits of Lok Adalats, Ms Manni Arora, CJM/Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Patiala told that when a case is settled in Lok Adalat, its award becomes final and no appeal lies against it. Moreover, court fees (if any paid) is refunded to parties and parties to dispute get speedy disposal of their dispute and that too as per their own mutually settled terms.
So, there is a win-win situation for both the parties. Primary objective of the Lok Adalat is to settle the disputes amicably through compromise, so as to save the time and money of the parties and to reduce personal enmity between them.
The important feature of National Lok Adalat was the settlement of 242 family disputes which were pending before the Family Courts of Principal Judge, Sh. Muneesh Arora and Additional Principal Judge Ms Deepika Singh.