47 Benches constituted in National Lok Adalat

Over 20,000 cases were settled through mutual consent during the National Lok Adalat in Patiala on Saturday under the supervision of Avtar Singh, District and Sessions Judge-cum-Chairperson, District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and Amandeep Kamboj, Chief Judicial Magistrate-cum-Secretary, DLSA, Patiala.

In this National Lok Adalat, 47 Benches (30 in Patiala, six in Rajpura, five in Nabha and fix in Samana) were constituted in the district. One Bench was constituted at the Revenue Court for settlement of cases pertaining to mutation and partition etc. Besides, one was constituted at the women cell to resolve issues through mutual consent prior to the registration of cases in matrimonial disputes. In this National Lok Adalat, 34,476 cases were taken up under different categories and 20,252 were settled through mutual compromise, involving an amount of Rs 51,05,33,463.

The Sessions Judge highlighted the numerous advantages of Lok Adalats. He said once a case was resolved in a Lok Adalat, its decision became final and could not be appealed.

Additionally, any court fees previously paid by the parties were refunded. This process ensures a swift resolution of disputes, as per mutually agreed terms of the involved parties, leading to a beneficial outcome for all. The primary goal of Lok Adalats is to foster amicable settlements through compromise, ultimately saving time, money and mitigating personal animosity between the disputing parties.

A key highlight of this National Lok Adalat was the amicable settlement of 142 family dispute cases pending before the Family Courts and 343 cheque bounce cases, involving a total amount of Rs 13,30,85,387.