19,815 cases settled in Lok Adalat in Amritsar

Amritsar, May 11

A total of 19,815 cases were disposed of during the National Lok Adalat held here on Saturday. District and Sessions Judge Amarinder Singh Grewal, said a total of 22,370 cases were put up before the Benches constituted for the Lok Adalat at the district courts here and sub-divisional courts in Ajnala and Baba Bakala.

He said cases in the categories of criminal compoundable, bank recovery, cheque bounce, matrimonial disputes, electricity and water bills, telecoms, MACT matters, labour disputes, traffic challans were taken up by 23 Benches.

Apart from the 17 benches at the district courts and one of Permanent Lok Adalat, three Benches were held in Ajnala and two at Baba Bakala Sahib.

District and Sessions Judge Amarinder Singh Grewal said Lok Adalats are organized by the National Legal Services Authority (NLSA), as an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mode wherein pre-litigative and pending cases in the courts are disposed of on the basis of amicable settlement without any expense on the part of litigants.

He said in recovery cases, court fees affixed by the parties on the plaint at the time of filling of suits are also ordered to be refunded. It is free of cost and an expeditious method to bring litigating parties to a settlement of their disputes and saving them from prolonged litigation, he added.

Citing a case pertaining to a matrimonial dispute, he said the case had started in Jodhpur (Rajasthan) in the year 2014. After that in year 2023, the case was transferred to Amritsar.

“Thus, the parties had been facing litigation for the last 10 years. Now, with the sincere efforts of the judges at the National Lok Adalat and members, the matter was amicably resolved and the parties decided to dissolve their marriage by way of mutual consent and thus after 10 years, the matter got settled,” he said.