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Lok Adalats-Justice Expedited

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Lok Adalat is a judicial institution developed by the people themselves for social justice. It is a dispute settlement agency and settles litigation by

• Negotiation,
• Arbitration
• Conciliation.

Lok Adalats are not alternative to the existing courts. They are only supplementary to the courts.The organization of Lok Adalat is informal and flexible. Apart from some minimum requirements in respect of procedures and approaches, the rest of the exercise is simple and varied as the nature of the problems and the culture of the community demand.

Lok Adalats are much faster than the normal judicial process. In the first 10 months of 2007, Lok Adalats in Bhopal, meeting twice a month, disposed of over 20,000 cases. In 2004, more than 2,00,000 Lok Adalats across India disposed of more than 16 million cases.

The secret of fast work is the absence of argumentative lawyers and since cases are settled with mutual consent there is no further appeal.

The concept of Lok Adalats has evolved from the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. Under it, district authorities hold Lok Adalats to settle many cases, including criminal ones.

Most cases solved in Lok Adalats are claims under the Motor Vehicles Act, or for bounced cheques under the Negotiable Instruments Act, apart from electricity theft under the Electricity Act 2002.

With legal literacy increasing, Lok Adalats could soon evolve into a mainstream forum for settling disputes quickly and effectively.Judicial justice is much despised in our country by the common man because of the ruinous cost of litigation, far too technical legal process, prolonged litigation and inordinate delay in disposal of cases.

This kind of redressal is needed for enabling the common people to ventilate their grievances against the state agencies or against other citizens and to seek a just settlement if possible.

The parties settling disputes in Lok Adalats are saved from extremely technical court procedures followed in a regular court, protracted litigation, anxiety, bitterness apart from the saving of expenses of court fees and other expenses. The organization of Lok Adalat is informal and flexible. Apart from some minimum requirements in respect of procedures and approaches, the rest of the exercise is simple and varied as the nature of the problems and the culture of the community demand.

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Tags: common man, faster justice, judicial system, law awareness, lok adalat