The document discusses Lok Adalats, which are permanent and continuous people's courts in India established under the Legal Services Authorities Act of 1987. Lok Adalats aim to provide an alternative dispute resolution mechanism that is faster and more cost-effective compared to regular courts. The document outlines the key provisions relating to Lok Adalats contained in Sections 19-22 of the Act, including how cases can be referred to Lok Adalats, the powers of Lok Adalats, and that their awards have the same status as a civil court decree. The benefits of Lok Adalats are also summarized, such as no court fees and a less formal procedure compared to courts. Finally, the differences between ordinary and permanent Lok Adal

2. LOK ADALAT
L O G I C A L L Y L E G A L @
G M A I L . C O M

3. Introduction
LOK ADALAT :-
The philosophy behind setting up of
permanent and continuous Lok Adalats is
that in our country, the litigant public has
not so far been provided any statutory
forum for counseling and as such, these
Lok Adalats may take uponthemselves the
role of counselors as well as conciliators.
Experiment of Lok Adalat as an ADR mode
has come to be accepted in India as a
Viable, economic, efficient and informal
one.
The provisions relating to Lok Adalat are
contained in sections 19 to 22 of the Legal
Services Authorities Act 1987"

4. Introduction
Free legal aid to the poor and marginalized members of the society is now viewed as a
tool to empower them to use the power of the law to advance their rights and interests
as citizens and as economic actors. Parliament enacted
the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 in order to give effect to Article 39-A of the
Constitution to extend free legal aid, to ensure that the legal system promotes justice
on the basis of equal opportunity.
The “Lok Adalat” is an old form of adjudicating system prevailed in ancient India and its
validity has not been taken away even in the modern days too. The word Lok Adalat’
means People Court. This system is based on Gandhian Principles. It is one of the
components of ADR system. As the Indian Courts are over burdened with the backlog
of cases and the regular Courts are to decide the cases involve a lengthy, expensive
and tedious procedure. The Court takes years together to settle even petty cases. Lok
Adalat, therefore provides alternative resolution or devise for expeditious and
inexpensive justice.

5. Section 19 talks about:-
Organization of Lok Adalat
1. Every State Authority, District Authority, Supreme/High Court/Taluk legal Services Committee
may organize Lok Adalat at such intervals and places.
2. Such Lok Adalats shall consist of – serving or retired judicial officers andother persons of the
area as may be specified by the authorities under clause (1) above.
3. The experience and qualifications of other persons as at (2) above organized by Supreme Court
Legal Services Committee shall be such as may be prescribed by the Central Government in
consultation with Chief Justice of India.
4. The experience and qualifications of other persons as at (2) above organized by other
authorities except Supreme Court legal services Committee shall be such as may be prescribed by
the state government in consultation with Chief Justice of the HC.

6. Section 20 talks about:-
COGNIZANCE Cases of Lok Adalat
1.Where the parties there of agree or one of the parties makes to the court to refer the case to Lok
adalat and the court is satisfied that there
are chances of settlement and the matter is appropriate one to be taken cognizance of by Lok
Adalat, the court shall refer the case to the Lok adalat. No case shall be forwarded to the Lok
Adalat without giving reasonable opportunity of being heard to the parties.
2.The Authority or Committee organizing the Lok adalat on receiving application from Lok Adalat.
3.The Lok adalat shall proceed to dispose of the case and arrive at a the parties/cases
compromise or settlement between the parties.
4.The Lok adalat in arriving at the settlement shall be guided by the principles of justice, equity, fair
play and other legal principles.

7. 5. Where no settlement is arrived at, the record of the case shall be returned the
court from where reference has been received and the court shall proceed with such
cases.
6. In case of direct application received from the parties, and no settlement took
place, the Lok adalat may advice the parties to seek remedy in a court.
Thus according to section 20, when the parties agree for referring the case to the Lok Adalat
for settlement and if the Court is primafacie satisfied that there are chances of such
settlement, the Court shall refer the case to the Lok Adalat. Where any case is referred to the
Lok Adalat under sub-section (1) of Section 20, the Lok Adalat shall proceed to dispose of the
case or matter and arrive at a compromise or settlement between the parties.

8. Section 21 talks about :-
Award of LOK ADALAT
Every award of the Lok adalat shall be deemed to be a decree of a civil
court whenever a settlement has been arrived. It shall be final and binding and no
appeal shall lie to any court against the award.
Thus where an award is made by the Lok Adalat in terms of a settlement arrived at
between the parties, which is duly signed by parties and annexed to the award of the
Lok Adalat, it becomes final and binding on the parties to the
Settlement and becomes executable as if it is a decree of a civil court, and no appeal
lies against it to any court. If any party wants to challenge such an award based on
settlement, it can be done only by filing a petition under Article 226 and/or Article 227 of
the Constitution, that too on very limited grounds.

9. Section 22 talks about :-
Power of LOK ADALAT
1.The Lok adalats shall have the following powers under the Act
a) summon and examine any witness and examine on oath
b) discovery and production of any document
c) the reception of evidence on affidavits
d) requisitioning of any public record or document or copy of document from any court or office.
E) such other matters as may be prescribed.
2.Lok adalats shall have the requisite powers to specity its own Dro Ocedure
for the determination of any procedure coming before it.
3. Proceeding before the Lok adalat shall be deemed to be judicial proceeding under 193,219 and 228 of the Indian
Penal Code and 195 and Chapter XXVI of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
A Lok Adalat award is on a par with a decree on compromise, final, un-appealable, binding and equivalent to an
executable decree, and ends the litigation between the parties

10. Benefits of LOK ADALAT:-
The following are the benefit of Lok Adalat as observed by the Supreme Court in the case of P.T Thomas
v. Thomas Job
1.There is no court fee and if court fee is already paid the amount will be refunde if the dispute is
settled at Lok Adalat according to the rules.
2 The basic features of Lok Adalat are the procedural flexibility and speedy trial of the disputes. There is
no strict application of procedural laws like the Civil Procedure Code and the Evidence Act while
assessing the claim by Lok Adalat.
3.The parties to the dispute can directly interact with the judge through their counsel which is not
possible in regular courts of law.
4.The award by the Lok Adalat is binding on the parties and it has the status of a decree of a civil court
and it is non-appealable, which does not cause the delay in the settlement of disputes finally.

11. Types of LOK ADALAT:-
Daily Lok Adalat – These are lok adalats organized or held on everyday basis
Mobile Lok Adalat – This is a kind of mobile van with judicial personnel visit
places at different parts of the district or state to resolve petty disputes of the
people so that they need not go for litigation.
Mega Lok Adalat -This kind of lok adalat is held on a single day at the state level, in a number of courts of the state.
National level Lok Adalats – This kind of lok adalats are convened at regular intervals throughout the country at periodic intervals.
This is usually organized to dispose of the pending cases in courts.
Permanent Lok Adalats – There is a provision to establish Permanent Lok Adalat, under Section 22-B of The Legal Services
Authorities Act, 1987. The provisions related to permanent lok adalat. Any party to a dispute may, before the dispute is brought
before any court, make an application to the Permanent Lok Adalat for the settlement of dispute. However, Permanent Lok
Adalat;shall not have jurisdiction in respect of:
1.) non compoundable offences under any law.
2.) in a civil case where the value of the property in dispute exceeds ten lakh rupees.

12. It is another adjudicatory authority, the decision of which by a legal fiction would be a decision
of a civil court. It has the right to decide a case.
Any award made by he Permanent Lok Adalat is executable as a decree.No appeal there
against shall lie.The decision of the Permanent Lok Adalat is final and binding the
parties.Thus a permanent lok adalat can proceed to decide a matter even when there is no
consensus between the parties unlike a lok adalat. Moreover, there is no appeal from such
decisions as well, requiring the need of a cautious approach in such mode of ADR. This is
evident from the following observation of the Supreme Court.
“Whereas on the one hand, Keeping in View the Parliamentary intent, settlement of all
disputes through negotiation, conciliation, medication, lok Adalat and Judicial Settlement are
required to be encouraged, it is equally well Settle that where the jurisdiction of a court is
sought to be taken away, the statutory provisions deserve strict construction. A balance is
thus required to be stuck.

13. Remedy against an award of Lok Adalat
The decision given by a lok adalat is on the basis of the consent of the parties and an appeal does not
arise from a decision reached on consent. The question that arises then is; what is the remedy available
to a person aggrieved of an award of a lok adalat. This question came before the Supreme Court in a
number of cases as under:
1. State of Punjab v. Jalour Singh – In this case, the award passed by the Lok Adalat under Section 20 of
the Act. In that case, the award was passed by the Lok Adalat which had resulted in disposal of the
appeal pending before the High Court relating to a claim case arising out of Motor Vehicle Act. One party
to the appeal felt aggrieved of the Award and, therefore, questioned its legality and correctness by filing a
writ petition under Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India. The High Court dismissed the writ petition
holding it to be not maintainable. The aggrieved party, therefore, filed an appeal by way of special leave
before this Court. The Supreme Court set aside the order of the High court and allowed the appeal. The
Supreme Court held that – held that the only remedy available with the aggrieved person was to
challenge the award of the Lok Adalat by filing a writ petition under Article 226 or/and 227 of the
Constitution of India in the High Court and that too on very limited grounds.

14. Here, you have to remember that an award passed by LOK ADALAT in term of a
settlement arrived at between the parties; it becomes final and binding on theparties
to the settlement and becomes executable as ir 1t 15 a decree of a civil Court.
Thus when the award is obtained on fraud, misrepresentation etc by a party,the
award can only be considered as illegal or void and can be set aside it is for the writ
court to decide as to whether any ground was made out by the Writ petitioners for
quashing the award and, if so, whether those grounds are sufficient
for its quashing. No suit can be filed to challenge an arbitral award, it can only be
quashed under article 226 or 227. The grounds can be the same grounds on which
a contract can be challenged.

15. Ques. What is the difference between an ordinary Lok Adalat and a
permanent Lok Adalat ?
The permanent lok adalat shall exercise jurisdiction in respect of one or more public utility
service such as transport services of passengers or goods by air, road and water, postal,
telegraph or telephone services, supply of power, light or water to the public by any
establishment, public conservancy or sanitation, services in hospitals or dispensaries, and
insurance services etc.
1.) Ordinary lok adalats can only take a decision on consent basis. There is no further appeal
from it for the basic reason that decision arrived at by cansent shall be final and cannot be
reopened.
2.) The permanent lokadalat also usually decides issues on consent basis. But when the
parties fail to reach an agreement, the Permanent lok adalat shall proceed to decide the
dispute and it will be binding. It looks like an injustice as the Act does not provide for any
appeal. The answer to this can be ascertained from the following decisions:

16. Mansukhlal Vithaldas Chauhan v. State of Gujarat”, it was held that; the duty
of the Court is to confine itself to the question of legality. Its concern should be:
1.) whether the decision-making authority exceeded its powers?;
2.) committed an error of law
3.) committed a breach of the rules of natural justice;
4.).reached a decision which no reasonable Tribunal would have reached; or
5.) abused its powers.
In the case on hand the lok adalat exceeded its powers, Committed an error of law,
committed breach of the rules of natural justice and abused its powers. Even if this
Court were to strictly confine itself to the question of legality, the impugned order
cannot still be tolerated as it suffers from all the foibles that justify interference under
Article 226 of the Constitution.

17. In Bar Council of India v. Union of India, the Supreme Court upheld the provisions of
Section 22-A to 22-D as contained in Chapter VI-A of the Act and also held that if no
appeal is provided against the award of the lok adalat, the aggrieved party can
approach the High Court under its supervisory and extraordinary jurisdiction under
Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution

18. THANK
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