CJI: Fed up with delayed trial, litigants opting for settlement

Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 3
Highlighting the role of Lok Adalats as an alternative dispute redressal mechanism, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Saturday said people were often so fed up with court proceedings that they just want to get away from courts as the process itself becomes a punishment.
“People are often so fed up with court proceedings that they resort to whatever settlement they can. They think ‘just keep us away from courts’…,” the CJI said at the commemoration function of Special Lok Adalat Week in the Supreme Court that ended on Friday.
“This is also a problem which we see as judges. The process is the punishment and that’s a cause for concern for all of us judges. Very often we say we will not allow this matter to be settled. Because the settlement reflects the pre-existing inequalities in society. So as judges we try... and say that we will not settle it and we will try and get you a better outcome,” Justice Chandrachud said. He narrated how Justice Vikram Nath rejected a settlement offer of Rs 1 lakh in a Lok Adalat and instead awarded Rs 6 lakh in addition to the settlement amount.
During the week-long Lok Adalat between July 29 and August 2, several Benches of the Supreme Court assembled every day afternoon and disposed of more than 1,000 civil, matrimonial and land acquisition disputes by directly interacting with the parties.
“I hope that we will now institutionalise this process of dispensing justice through Lok Adalats because it’s been one of my initiatives that whatever we do as a court must be institutionalised. It shouldn’t be that it is just a one-off initiative, which is then forgotten for the future, unless until 15 years later somebody else picks it up. We must ensure that it becomes part of our processes and systems,” the CJI said. He said the Lok Adalat Benches consisted of two judges and a senior member from the Supreme Court Bar Association and one member the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association.
“This was to give advocates ownership over the institution and that it’s just not for the judges. Lawyers always knew about procedural issues and we learnt a lot from them. They told us how a settlement case can be made fool-proof. Lawyers also learnt from us about dealing with such issues,” the CJI said at the function, also attended by Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal.
He said the Special Lok Adalat began with seven Benches as “we were sceptical if we would be successful… By Thursday, we had 13 Benches and there was so much work… The purpose has been to take justice to the homes of people.”
The decision made by Lok Adalats is deemed to be a decree of a civil court and is final and binding on all parties and no appeal against it lies before any court of law.

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Cause for concern
People are often so fed up with court proceedings that they resort to whatever settlement they can. They think ‘just keep us away from courts’… that’s a cause for concern for all of us judges. — DY Chandrachud, CJI